Breaking up with a friend...

I had to break up with a friend today I care for him deeply, but he's triggered me so much over the past few weeks that I've gone backwards to a place I haven't been to for a long time. I have two therapy appts this week, one to discuss adjusting meds and the other to discuss CBT.

It's strange though because I can come here and empathize and find like minded souls, yet I'm on the verge of splitting him?

Have you tried CBT? Only ask because I find it a quick fix yet nothing long term. Makes me feel good the first session or so then bam I was back to square one? Interesting to see how you go?

If a friend you may feel like this now and later different... Sometimes I feel like that with friends and then just distance myself for a while and relise that if I had written them off, they're not such a bad thing... Just a thought.

Easy to empathize when one is not directly affected... anonymity is a powerful thing

Wineaux,

I've been meaning to thank you for the shout out (a while back)! It's nice to know you, too, are in Houston.

Speaking of (Houston), I've lived here for about three years & know plenty of people but have made one very good friend whom I trust completely and consider to be my "best friend" for we have developed a sister-like bond - a closeness uncommon to most relationships forged in adulthood, especially between two women with lifelong aversions to keeping females as friends; guys are more fun, less drama.

Anyway, I have been struggling the past few months to keep myself from splitting when it comes to my feelings about her & the nature of our friendship. And it sucks because, on one hand, I believe that current circumstances have given me a legitimate reason to question her loyalty as a friend & whether or not she is beginning to take me for granted yet, on the other hand, I don't want to cut her off because then I will have no one...

HOWEVER, I am beginning to despise myself for allowing this to go on... I have a strong sense of "justice" (fairness, what is right); this personal code of values, or set of principles, is the basis for my decision-making and, in effect & ultimately, dictates my actions.

In sum, I am consciously doing wrong by myself because I am so scared to lose the one person I have in my life (in this city), whether she be a true friend or not.