I have a distant friend who I talk to occasionally. She’s two years older than me and we went to the same high school, we had mutual friends. We were “friends†but she was always really mean to me. We both had an eating disorder, but she was heavier than me. She used to get angry and try to compete, she thought I was “better†at having an eating disorder than her. At the time, I didn’t even know I was sick, I hadn’t even realized there was a problem. She used to ask me what size pants I wore and announce it to everyone “guys she is wearing a size 0 and she still thinks she’s fat!†On my sickest days, she would look at me and tell me how good I was at starving. She would say things like “wow, you’re really skinny, wouldn’t it be cool to lose 10 more pounds? I bet you could do it quick too!†I don’t know why, but I did everything she said. I believed her when she said I should be skinnier and when she said I should try harder. She knew how to make me sick just by using her words. For over a year she would take advantage of my thoughts. She was sick, too, and I thought that made her words okay. I felt bad for her, I genuinely wanted to help her. I would stay up late telling her I cared about her and making sure she didn’t hurt herself. She would make me feel guilty for being skinnier than her. Once, she told me that the only reason I had friends was because I was skinny. She said that if I gained weight, no one would like me, not even her. I eventually stopped talking to her when I began recovering. I realized that she was MEAN and her problems were no excuse for her words.
This summer I started talking to her again. I just wanted to know that she was okay, so I texted her. At the time she was okay, she was living in a different state. I texted her today and she told me she’s not okay. She’s telling me about how bad her bulimia, depression, and cutting has become. She told me she wants to kill herself. Honestly, back in high school, she was one to say she was going to kill herself all the time, just to see if anyone cared enough to stop her. I used to pray for hours before realizing her threats were empty. I don’t know now though. What if she kills herself and I knew about it? I’m trying to talk her out of it, but what does that make me? A hypocrite, that’s all.
1 comment
I have to admit, she sounds pretty damn mean.
She has a history of manipulating you. Frankly, it sounds like nothing has changed. Is she trying to guilt trip you back into being friends with her? If so, don’t. For both of your sakes. Because she’s bad for you, and you’d only be enabling her bitchy behaviour. If she’s learned from her mistakes and apologised for how she treated you, that’s with supporting. But if she hasn’t, and you go back to being her friend, you’re implicitly telling her its ok to treat people like garbage