Any psychiatrists in? Struggling to work out what this is.

[Downinthebottomofthegarden]

I have a problem, I'm not sure whether I had it in childhood, but I think it's been with me throughout my adulthood.

I have a few groups of friends, and then maybe a handful (if that) of people that I have a really close connection with.

If there's a big social event on, I can often find myself really stressed that one of my very close friends (from one group) will bump into one of my very close friends from another group and form some sort of special connection/close friendship that I won't be part of.

Does anyone know what this is called? And where it's come from?

Not a psychiatrist but work in a related field.

Does the worry make you behave any differently? Do you do anything you otherwise wouldn't, or avoid doing anything you normally would?

Bump

No idea but I have a friend who does this.
She’s probably my oldest friend but now we’re essentially estranged as she’s excluded me from most of her life (particularly her new husband- friends never got to meet her boyfriends in case we ‘stole’ them 🙄) It’s a real shame, hope you manage to get some help with it

I'm not a psychiatrist but a CBT therapist. I've never heard of a name for this.

I would ask you first, why is that a cause for anxiety, as in, why would it be a bad thing for those people to be friends?
What do you feel it says about you?
What does that mean to you?
and, is this idea reminding you of something else from your past? Have you felt like this before? Has this kind of thing happened in your life?

oh wait, is this 'Wendying'??