To ask if a friend has ever suddenly stopped talking to you?

Yes. It was horrible. We had met through previous employment and stayed friends. We were close. We both maintained separate friendship groups and definitely were not overly reliant on her.

I moved jobs and relocated to an area close to where she lived. She then moved to my area. She seemed to be off with me, snappy and irritable. I asked her timidly a couple of times if she was upset with me, she rolled her eyes. I began to feel stupid and annoying.

Her best friends were local as she grew up there. She often invited me to gatherings. I sometimes went but as I'd stopped drinking and become really into fitness it often didn't suit. I tried inviting her to things with my friends but she declined saying she was too busy with her wedding and hen party plans to meet 'randomers".

One day she invited me to something but I was going to be away for an event. I suggested meeting up for some other reason but she ignored my messages.

Her hen party then wedding came and went with no invitation despite her previously telling me I was invited to both with a guest for the wedding. I only knew as I saw her photos on Facebook. Immediately after returning from her honeymoon she deleted me from her friends list.

Even stranger her friends that I knew casually (from yoga, hair salon etc) would get openly awkward when I bumped into them and tried to engage in general pleasantries. I never understood it. This was seven years ago.

Stranger again now they have all done a U-turn, her included. She doesn't seem to have the courage to walk up to me and say hello but she's forever frantically waving and shouting hello and her friends nearly wrestle me to the ground to say hello, talk to my DC and ask how I am.

I find the whole thing upsetting. I have no idea what my 'crime' was or why I was suddenly absolved. I've gone through all theories in my head and my gut says somebody made something up about me which was later revealed as bullshit.

Yes a school mum when my eldest was at school. Was super nice and friendly, would rush over to talk to me. Then suddenly one day totally blanked me. If I went to and said hello she would mutter it back without eye contact but otherwise pretend she hadn't seen me.

My guess was that our kids had had some sort of falling out - it couldn't have been anything really bad as they were in year 1 and I would have heard from school. I remain mystified today. Oddly she later became a lunchtime supervisor and my youngest (10 years younger than first child) adored her and would rush up and cuddle her and tell me "Mrs x is soooo nice to me". I don't think Mrs x had any idea that her mother is the woman she blanked 10 years earlier!

I ghosted my so called best friend during the pandemic and it was the BEST thing I ever did. I'm not sorry and would 100% do it again.
She was an emotional vampire. I was given a list of topics that were not ok to talk about because of her mental health (i.e my fitness journey/ my chronic pain/my partner/my job/our house search etc. Pretty much everything).
She trashed my long term partner, saying I should break up with him because he clearly wasn't going to marry me (spoiler, he did). He wasn't invited to her wedding (we'd been together like 12 years) - where I was MOH (horror story for another time). She text me the same depressing shit every day. Her neighbour died of cancer. Awful, yes. I sent my condolences. That wasn't enough. She told me off for not caring enough. For a woman I never met. Ever.
I was there for her through all her trauma (and there was a LOT. Some of it completely self inflicted). As soon as I had a problem, she was dismissive. I asked for some space. Which she gave. Then nagged me again. Chatting pointless shit. So I told her that I was taking a step back from people in general because I felt I was being used (absolutely true). I then saw on twitter that she had told people I had "severe untreated MH issues". Excuse me?!
Blocked her there and then, deciding that anyone who does that doesn't deserve my friendship or closure. My life has literally improved 100%.
But that's just me.

Two friends I'd known from middle school both dumped me around age 50. No idea why although the common denominators were my divorce and perhaps their partners. We'd supported each other through lots of life events and had ended up living closer to one another.
I pushed to meet one and tried to raise it. She denied any issue but I've never heard from her again.
It's very painful and bewildering and may be to do with their partners and my divorce, who knows. It seemed strange that such long term friendships would fail at that point.
I also consider that maybe I was difficult to be with as my divorce was very difficult, and maybe I was offputtingly upset.
I try to focus on the friends who did stick with me, and remember the good years we had as friends. And let it go. Plus accept that I may well never know what went wrong.

This is me at the moment.

Also overwhelmed and stretched too thin. Everyone wanting a piece of me, but I have nothing left to give.

I’ve done it to a friend of 20 years recently, although I call it the slow fade rather than ghosting.

It started when my sibling died suddenly during the pandemic. I had one text from her. Then nothing for months. She didn’t acknowledge a milestone birthday I had. Then I was added to a WhatsApp for her hen weekend. Then I had a cancer scare and was put on an urgent diagnosis pathway. Then I split up with my partner. She’s very self-centred and materialistic and I just couldn’t deal with her “me, me, me” vibe. So I just never got in contact with her again. And I don’t miss her in the slightest.

this happened to me about 11 years ago.. was really good friends with a lady in the village i lived in, her DD and my DD got on really well and would regularly have sleep overs etc. and me and this woman went out together, shopping, exercising, nights out etc.. i thought she was a good friend.

i used to drive the 2 girls to school everyday as i passed on my way to work.

we moved house, closer to the school and out of the village so DD could walk to school. friend asked if i was still going to be taking her DD to school and i looked at her confused and replied that no, sorry its a 7 mile round trip to get to her village, pick up her DD and then take her to school.. and this was expected twice a day?

and that was the end of the friendship.. no explaination, i tried to keep in touch, but everything was ignored and on christmas day of all days she unfriended me on facebook which i thought was hilarious.

i have since found out that she also did this to another friend who moved away from the village.

I had a friend who did this too me several times and kept getting back in touch in the end i just stopped contacting her ,she tried again via my sister before the pandemic, but I just said no ,not happening

I drifted from a friend but mutually. She hadn’t been the first to make contact for a while and despite her wanting to meet up and doing so, I was doing all the leg work so backed off. I guess she might think I ghosted her but if she messaged I’d reply… until now, now I wouldn’t. A few weekends ago I was out for lunch with friends and she walked by, said hi to one off my group (a friend who dislikes her) but totally blanked me. That drew the line. It’s sad as we were close when dc were little but she’s a very different person now. Interestingly, she’s only friends with one from our original group.

I’ve decided it says more about her than me.

I think social media is to blame for this new phenomenon of ghosting people or cutting people out. It should be called antisocial media because it’s damaging our social skills. You can’t just block people and cut them off your friends list the minute they don’t meet up to a fake idealised version of a friend.
our society is headed for a very lonely future at this rate.

Twice.

Neither were really close friends, but we met up fairly regularly- until we didn’t. I got in touch both times, with no response, so left it.

to be fair, my final message to her was expressing that she needed to move on with her life, which I did think had a sense of finality to it.

I didn’t know if I needed a break or ending at the time I stopped responding, but I haven’t felt motivated to get tangled back up in a long drawn out explanation.

Yes.

She went through a bit of personal upheaval and reinvented herself and my face and all the bullshit I knew about didn't fit anymore. I knew too much.

She makes a theatrical show of pretending not to have seen me on the rare occasions we end up around the same local spots.

A lot of stuff has blown up in her face. I'm not sorry for her.

I supported her through so much and she didn't have the decency to do the same.

Why take the immature way out and ghost though? I can understand your reasoning but it’s just a ridiculous + spineless way of going about things.

I’ve actually been the friend who has ghosted a close friend.

I was feeling massively overwhelmed in life and stretched far too thin. I was her emotional crutch and listened for hours upon hours to the same self created dramas and poor life choices.

I needed a time out and to take a step back, and two years later I’ve not yet felt the need to get back in touch.

Yep. It's happening to me now. My two very close friends. Neither have replied to me now for over a year. I think it's time for me to just forget it. It's hard after more than twenty five years.
One very close friend from school ghosted me when I was about 20. Before then we'd been thick as thieves since year 7. I was really hurt.
Many years later we reconnected on Facebook. She kind of apologised, saying she was immature and couldn't handle the stuff that was going on in my life. So I forgave her.

Yep. Last saw her 4 years ago. Became friends in pregnancy, our daughters were close, they were about to start at (different) secondaries, and then she never replied to my texts again. Bizarrely a year later she posted "happy birthday" on my FB, but that was it.

I know everyone goes on about mental health crises at times like this - and i kept reaching out as she and her husband were (non medical) key workers, so at first I was mindful of this. But as time went on, my texts went unanswered and more photos appeared on FB of her with her school mum friend group, I started to think that probably wasn't the case.

Happened to me at university - I was actually living with her and she stopped talking to me, would leave the room (or house!) when I walked in, never found out why.

Story of my life.
I am everyones best friend when times are rough but when they are back on their feet, I am forgotten.
People are disappointing, that's why I prefer animals.

I had it happen to me with my best friend and I was heartbroken and so confused. It turned out she was seriously depressed and planning her suicide.
She recovered from her mental health crisis thankfully and we reconnected a couple of years later.

It happened years later with someone else and I never found out why. I wasn't too bothered though 😂

yes, happened to me too. My oldest and closest friend just stopped replying and contacting me about 5 years ago. I was so baffled and hurt, I couldn't understand why. I kept sending birthday and Christmas messages and the odd message here and there, but never got a response. All of the sudden after a 3 year silence she replied to one of my messages and aplologised for not keeping in touch, but she had had a mental breakdown and taken sick leave from work and literally become a hermit to try to recover.

It's awful isn't it, the lack of closure. It's impossible to just erase them out of your life and the thought "what did I do wrong" keeps bouncing in your head and wearing you out. I hope you get some closure to the situation, I know exactly how soul destroying it is. I cried so many times as I just didn't understand what was going on and why.

Yeah her bloke hated my guts. So told her I gave him the big come on and tried to get him into bed. I didn't find out until years later

This happened to me about 7 years ago. Made plans to meet up with an old school friend for lunch. Contacted her to confirm still okay to meet, no response although the 2 blue double clicks so knew it had been read. So I left it for a bit. Messaged a few months later to wish a happy birthday, no response, messaged the following year to wish a happy birthday and then left it there. I still to this day have no idea what I’ve done if anything and why I was totally ghosted. I’m not in touch with any mutual friends so I suppose I’ll never know. Every know and again I think about it but I just put it to the back of my mind, self preservation and all that.

I'm so glad you started a thread on this, OP; it helps destigmatise when you realise it's quite common.

Like a PP, my ghoster seemed perfectly fine inviting my ex (who she knew had physically assaulted me) to her wedding. So, for that alone, I was better off without such a backstabber. Her and I were friends first and, through me, she got to know my ex.

It's definitely them.

Yep, I've been ghosted. I do understand the mental health crisis thing to an extent but my former friend has been working, running life as normal etc. I also have a very good friend who was sectioned recently and we kept in touch.

The ghosting friend just ignored my texts / messages and once actively avoided going near me when we were both in the same room, she also turned her back to me in the street.

One day months later I ran into her and she waved and said 'hi' like nothing had happened. I smiled but didn't engage and overheard her doing some kind of 'huff'. I guess she wants friendship but entirely on her terms - I think how she's behaved towards a friend is shitty & god did it hurt but long term I'm better without.