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Reply To: Broken friendships

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#113994
Meg
Participant

You sound like you are a very evolved person. Unfortunately, R & J may not be quite as evolved or empathetic… just yet.

J should never have betrayed your trust and spoke to R about your personal issues. Regardless of how embellished R may have made it sound. If this is to be addressed again with J, those details need not matter. Just the betrayal of trust is enough. If J cares enough about your friendship she will need to personally grow and take responsibility. This starts with a truly sincere apology (admits she was wrong, empathizes with your feelings, and asks how she can make it right). Without this true apology (and personal growth on her part), it’s will be up to you whether you want to continue the friendship on some type of level.

R’s feelings may have been hurt with the realization about seeming judgmental. I am not sure how this conversation went down, but maybe you could try again to help her understand. She may have felt attacked. I think it is important for R to see it’s not personal toward her, but more about how you feel when you are talking about you and why you don’t feel comfortable or safe confiding in her. It is a hard realization for anyone, and another big personal growth effort (this time on on R’s part). Self-awareness is hard, so try to have patience on this one. She may be able to feel somewhat better about your friendship, but the feeling of being judged may not ever go away for you. But this friendship sounds like it is definitely worth trying to salvage. Trust is very valued quality and one which seems harder to come by these days. If your friendship is strong enough (and you can tell her you think it is) then this shouldn’t ruin it. In a perfect outcome, she will begin to understand your feelings, and try to make a change in herself for the better. Maybe by asking you examples and to point out instances when you feel this way (hard, but again necessary for growth). My guess is if you feel this way, there are likely others in her life that do as well. In fact she may have heard it before. Just be gentle, its hard for some of us to show vulnerability… Good Luck to you!