Dear Anita,

Thank you for your thoughts as always. I understand where you are coming from. I do get a lot of joy out of the friendship and want to keep it for now. He is otherwise a super positive person. We talk almost everyday and the vast majority of the time, he is all laughs and sunshine. I might just be extra upset because a week or so ago he told me some really bad stuff that happened to him when he was young, then a few days ago he says he started talking to his crazy sister again. I spoke to him on the phone last night and, I don’t know if this was the right thing to do, but I told him it hurts me a lot to think of him being treated so badly and to have seen him hurt so badly by this sister recently, and that I worry he will be hurt again, and I won’t be strong enough to help him through it, and I started crying a little. I think he felt really bad that he made me worry so much. I just hope I didn’t put too much extra weight on his shoulders. He assured me he is stronger now and isn’t going to be emotionally involved this time and has very low expectations so I shouldn’t worry.