My best friend from school cut me off without an explanation just over a year ago after 30 years of friendship. I’ve been somewhat baffled by it but figured she had her reasons as she’s had a tough few years with a messy divorce and custody issues. I’ve sent a couple of texts and 1 email (this is relevant to what has happened) over the year just asking how she was and if I’d done something to upset her I was sorry.
Fast forward to last Saturday and I was chatting with my brother who mentioned he had an Instagram account but I forgot to get his alias to follow him and did a search through my contacts. I didn’t initially recognise one of the contacts who flashed up from the thumbnail so I clicked on the account and the penny only dropped as to who it was when there was a picture of concert tickets for a fairly obscure band we both like.
Against my better judgement i sent a message saying I wouldn’t follow her or message her again but I hoped she was doing ok. No response, which wasn’t a huge surprise.
I happened to click on my direct messages to respond to another person and noticed that the ‘friend’s’ alias had changed to ‘beingcyberstalkedby auldspinster’ and had put my full name and location in her bio claiming that I’d been continuously cyberstalking her and that I need psychiatric help. I immediately blocked her and reported the account to Instagram for bullying and harassment – they’ve been absolutely useless and say it doesn’t violate their standards. I tried another complaint to them that it’s slander and my personal details have been disclosed but they say it’s nothing they can help with.
I know that it’s her that has the problem but I can’t help being hurt by the vicious way she’s gone about it. All she needed to do was block and ignore. We have so much shared history and my memories feel tainted now. It annoys me at how much Its affected me.