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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To feel trapped in this frienship but not know how to end it?

139 replies

HandcuffedToAGhost · 01/11/2016 01:36

We met in a self-help/ peer support group about 8 years ago but the only thing we had in common was the issue we went there to deal with and I no longer go to the group. She's not done anything wrong and is a kind person but I find her really boring, our lifestyles and priorities, sense of humour and some of our values are really different. I've tried not getting in touch and delaying meeting up hoping we'd sort of drift apart but she won't let go and I although I feel dishonest about staying friends I feel like a selfish cow being resentful about meeting for coffee every couple of weeks when it seems to mean so much to her. She has very few friends although she does have a happy marriage and a job she enjoys. I made a big mistake about 4 years ago taking her up on the offer of staying (with her) in her holiday home for a week because since then I've felt like I'm obliged to stay friends. WIBU to end the friendship and, if not, how the hell do I do it?

OP posts:
Cucumber5 · 04/11/2016 04:55

what about just going to the cinema together occasionally. That way it's interesting for you and you don't have to chat much. Space cinema visits out. say you're busy and then when suggesting a date, arrange a fortnight in the future.

Lovelyideas · 05/11/2016 16:30

picking up on 3luckystars' idea....but taking it a step further.

Could you sleep with her husband?

make sure you don't get pregnant or she will become family ...

HandcuffedToAGhost · 05/11/2016 18:12

Such lovely ideas Smile

OP posts:
Porpoises · 05/11/2016 19:43

I'd be honest, as tactfully as possible. The slow fade seems crueller in my view, because then she will waste months texting you when you have no intention of continuing the friendship. And its crueller to you too, because you will be dealing with this situations for months and months, when you just want it to be over with. There's too much potential for guilt tripping. If you dont want to have any contact with her, you have that right.

I sympathise with you. Its nice to be nice, but you can't give your time and love to everyone just because they want it from you, it makes you continuously at the mercy of every passing acquaintance.

Mutual support, even one sided support for limited periods, are great in a friendship that you both enjoy. But friendship and charity should be kept separate. Once you start having friends out of guilt, all potential joy is sucked away.

MarieKondoFan · 13/11/2016 00:33

I'm in a very similar situation (even down to having met her through a support network, her being "straight" - well when it suits her, but in her eyes she is always honest and straight - prim and proper and judgmental, and us having very different values and little in common other than what brought us to the support group). I also don't know how best to deal with it. I have the added complication of still being a part of the online support-network (though she lives a good distance from me so I don't have to meet up with her).

I did manage to pull back a lot from contact, going from phone/text contact a few times a week to only speaking every few weeks or even every few months and only a small number of texts a month. I thought I could cope with this level of contact, but I find I am still giving it too much headspace and getting really annoyed by any phone conversations and often by her texts (though they are a lot less annoying as they are less time-consuming).

I just spoke to her tonight and feel really irritated by this thing that she does where she minimises mine and other people's problems. She engages in a sort-of suffering-one-upmanship, where she has an idealised view of other people's lives and an overly negative take on her own. Ironicallly she told me her mother used to drive her crazy with doing this to her.

Sometimes I feel like I am being gas-lighted by her take on my life, and even other people's lives. It is all part of this victimhood script thing she has going. I think this is the part of the relationship with her which is making me think I have to end it for my own sanity.

Funnily enough a few people that I know of have mentioned problems with her behaviour to her but she never takes it on board, is outraged at the idea of what they say, and then carries on with the same behaviour, resulting in the same outcomes over and over again. She falls out very regularly with people. I don't known how she manages it but she has a few rows a month with people (and then complains about people not maintaining contact with her!).

Anyway I am still thinking this through myself about how to best deal with it, as I don't want her to have a meltdown, for both our sakes. I started to challenge her more when I disagreed with her (which may have helped a bit both for me to feel I wasn't suppressing my feelings, but also for her possibly to pull back also as to her challenging her would probably make her feel "unsupported"). I think I will bring up the problem I had with something she said tonight and tell her how I felt about it and I might even say that I need some space as I find this sort of thing too hurtful and stressful.

I think this advice below was good (I had fallen into the trap of just not bothering to disagree with her when she made some comments, as initially I didn't realise I would be in touch with her for so long. Mind you you don't want spend too much energy arguing over every point either):

^Does she know how different you both are? I know I will nod and smile along with people saying the most rediculous things when I don't particularly care about their opinion. Have you been doing that whilst thinking she's a bit of a dick? Might she just think you are on her wavelength?

If that's the situation then I'd just start disagreeing when she says something you disagree with or talking about things you really like but that she doesn't. Not in a way that you're trying to be rude just in a way that you're talking like you would do with someone who you actually get on with without the politeness filter that you use for superficial meaningless chat.

If you do that she might work out for herself that you're not as suited to friendship as she thought you were.^

LetitiaCropleysCookbook · 13/11/2016 01:19

Do you feel uncomfortable in her company because you can't be yourself? If you 'adapt' your behaviour/conversation to fit in with her when you meet up, that's bound to be a strain.

Maybe you should start swearing more, forcefully expressing views you know she doesn't share and generally highlighting the differences between you. She may drop you like a stone!

If not, it may at least make any meetings you do have more bearable.

LetitiaCropleysCookbook · 13/11/2016 01:25

Ooh, sorry. Marie's already said the same Blush

aurynne · 13/11/2016 03:18

Dropping a friendship is always much easier said than done, and always so much easier to tell someone else to do it...

I have been in this situation and it sucks. The first time with the added difficulty that my friend had a disability. When i met her it was fun and we really clicked and there was no "neediness" involved. However, as we got to meet each other the friendship started being more one-sided: she couldn't drive, so it would always be me driving to her house, picking her up, going somewhere, bringing her back to her house, and then she'd expect me to stay around for ages. In between visits she would text and call and e-mail (I am quite independent and really don't like that). She would expect me to see her much more often than I see any other friend. It all started grating on me and I was feeling stressed every time she texted or wrote to me, and started dreading having to see her. Her disability made me feel like a shitty person for not wanting her as a friend anymore.

But eventually it got to a point when i realised it was not fair on me either. I tried to tell her she was being too overwhelming, that I did not see any other friend as much as I saw her and needed some time to myself in between... it just made things worse. She would send me emails and texts asking me "are you still my friend?". She became even needier.

in the end, with a;l the pain in my heart, I just stopped answering any of her messages. I would delete them immediately without reading. Although i felt horrible, I also felt immense relief. I don't miss her. My real friends are the ones I enjoy as much as they enjoy me. However, it is never easy and it can never be painless. I still feel guilty when i think about her, however I must say this does not happen very often, and this is one of the things that prove to me that it was not a real friendship.

I am now in a similar situation with a person i helped immigrate to this country. As a result, she feels really indebted to me and keeps wanting to meet me all the time. But she has what i find like an extremely overwhelming personality which I did not find out until we had met a number of times. This time I have learned, and I am in the process of cutting her off much faster.

It is cruel, but I much rather spend time with family and true friends than feel obliged (obligated??) to dedicate many hours of my life to people I feel uncomfortable with.

Good luck!

Tomselleckhaskindeyes · 13/11/2016 04:50

I think some posters have it. You need to behave so badly that she will drop you. I did it recently with someone who wasn't getting my hints so just stRted to be a bit awkward about stuff until she dropped me. I was so relieved!

danielsk1969 · 13/11/2016 18:35

I once wrote a three page long email to a friend I wanted to ditch, and I'm still feeling the effects even now, due to mutual acquaintances telling me how terribly she's doing and so on, so I don't recommend that. Perhaps get into an argument so that she ends the friendship and you don't have to feel bad?

HandcuffedToAGhost · 16/11/2016 01:33

I had decided the best way forward was the Slow Fade combined with being more authentic when we met up (challenging her views and being more sweary) but now it's time to put plan into action I'm bloody stuck.

I've been sitting on a text from her since the weekend and can't work out how to reply. She wants to meet up to do something I agreed to to last time we met (go clothes shopping as she's lost a lot of weight and wants a new style - something I'd love to do with other friends). It seems cruel not to go as I've already agreed in principle. Needs to be done in time for xmas so can't do my planned 'see you in the new year'.

Also she wants to buy some stuff I make as Christmas presents - over £100 worth, which would be very welcome but I think it'd be hypocritical to sell to her when I'm planning to drop her and am posting all about it on MN! Can't pretend I have no stock as she knows other people who are buying stuff at the moment.

I feel cornered and frustrated at my inability to deal with this decisively.

OP posts:
CrotchetQuaverMinim · 16/11/2016 09:36

Perhaps you don't have to plan to drop her entirely. You can slow fade to a point where her company is manageable for you - even if that's once every couple of months. It might be easier to spend time with her once you're not seeing her or hearing from her so often (need to get her used to not repeatedly sending texts or letter etc).

But at least if your plan was to make it manageable rather than nothing, then you don't have to feel as guilty about everything.

DeDoRonRon · 16/11/2016 11:01

Ah OP I feel your pain…in a very similar situation myself. Mine started when I stepped up to support a (not close) friend who became unwell - started with a few visits in hospital, taking out for coffees, cinema visits, shopping etc…somehow there has been a creeping expropriation of my time and headspace, and I now find myself faced with daily texts/ requests to meet up. She suffers from a number of (relatively minor) physical and mental health issues and has I think latched onto me as her only/principal source of support. She also seems to dislike me spending time with other people, and if I use being busy as an excuse will somehow know that I’ve had time to meet up with other friends. She’s not a bad person but like you I have realised I don’t actually like her that much - certainly I have little in common with her. Unfortunately she has a LOT of time on her hands...

I think the slow fade is the kindest but you will have to be firm! easier said than done I know. In recent weeks I have been very busy with work and that has provided me with a cast iron get out clause - could you do similar? And wrt shopping trip: why not suggest you wait for the January sales and say you’ll have more time in the new year?

Good luck. I’ve found this thread really helpful in trying to sort out my own thinking and resolve to sort this out - my DH now refuses to engage in any discussion about it as I just go round and round and round in circles…

RhodaBull · 16/11/2016 11:07

Definitely Slow Fade. Those who advocate being "honest" could destroy a person. Fancy being told by someone you considered a friend that you have nothing in common/worse. If someone did that to me I'd dwell on it, well, for ever.

I've Slow Faded and been Slow Faded. I'd much, much rather someone said "Oh, yes, let's meet up.... at the end of February?" (which has actually just happened) rather than telling me I'm the most boring woman in Britain.

If you feel that Slow Fading is too much, then I second the cinema idea. Not much talking involved and the events can be fairly widely spaced.

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