“Sometimes, my anxiety and depression can make me a sh*tty friend. For the friends who have stuck around while I cancel plans, go radio silent, and patiently wait until I’m ready to talk, you’re the real ones. I’m lucky to have you.”
‘I don’t answer texts. I don’t make plans, and if I do, I cancel. Sometimes I need a break to figure out what’s going on in my head.’: Woman thankful for friends who stick around despite mental health struggles
‘We’ll miss you,’ my sister-in-law told me. You all abandoned me, just as my husband had.’: Woman feels ‘betrayed’ by in-laws after ex left her
“He left me at 10:30 p.m. on a cold Sunday night. You allowed my husband a place to stay, accepting him with open arms. You didn’t say anything to him, knowing he was using drugs. Everyone coddled him. Truth is, you all abandoned me. I was a part of your family for 11 years – and I was written off.”
‘Will he text me back?!’ I found myself jealous of my single friend. The butterflies, first-date jitters? I miss that.’: Woman claims marital ‘intimacy’ takes on new meaning over time, ‘I feel a type of love I’ve never known’
“She was all nervous and excited, waiting for him to text her. I found myself feeling jealous. I came home to my kids not listening, my kitchen a mess, and my husband complaining, ‘I thought you’d be back 20 minutes ago?’ I rolled my eyes at him and sat on the bed with laundry piles all around me. I sat there thinking, ‘I miss those first dates.'”
‘My best friend spent the past 2 weeks in the ICU thanks to a vape. Please don’t take the chance.’: Woman warns of ‘vaping dangers’ after friend nearly dies from vape-related lung injury
“Amanda was sick with a 103-degree fever. She was told she had the ‘flu’ and was sent home from urgent care. Before being discharged, the nurse noticed her oxygen levels dropping rapidly. Her face turned blue. She was drowning in her own blood. If you spent just one moment in there, you would never look at a vape again.”
‘Hey friend, I’m coming over. Please don’t clean up. Please don’t dress up.’: Mom doesn’t want friend to ‘apologize’ for being messy, ‘don’t stress the mess’
“Get ready to answer your door. Please don’t apologize. Please don’t freeze up. Please don’t clam up. Please just BE. Allow me to do the same. If you need to whine, I’m all ears. If you need to wine, I’ll bring a bottle. I’m coming over to support, help, empathize and entertain. I’m not coming over to speculate, assess, criticize or mock.”
‘Don’t try to fix me, or tell me it’s in my head. Just show up. Just love. I promise I’ll do the same.’: Woman pens letter to friends explaining anxiety, ‘true friendship is loving each other in ups and downs’
“When anxiety rears its ugly head, everything can look perfect. But all of a sudden, normal things feel like end-of-the-world things. Dirty dishes a mountain, laundry a tsunami, fighting kids a start of the third world war, bills are the crash of the stock market, relationship issues are the end of me having friends. Even though you can CLEARLY see it’s not, for me, that’s what the world feels like. You, my friend, can help me. You can love me in that space.”
‘I’m the ‘strong’ friend. Yet, I battle depression. Did you expect me to pull it together? I don’t work like that.’: Woman reminds us to ‘check on our strong friend,’ ‘she’s faking it’
“I’m the strong friend. I meet you for drinks when you’re facing disaster. I bring you dinner, flowers. I’m your sounding board. But you forgot to check on me. You ask me where I’ve been, you say I seem ‘off’ and that you miss my posts. You know what I heard? ‘Why aren’t you playing the role I need you to play?’ But I can’t play that role in life right now. I don’t have it in me.”
‘Are you Becca’s mom?’ A detective arrived at my house looking for ‘the woman swept away by flood waters.’: Mom loses daughter to tragic ‘flood, drowning’ accident after sensing her danger
“I told my daughter I loved her. She replied with a big red heart and said, ‘I’ll call you in a bit.’ This call would never come. At exactly 4:30 p.m., I felt every cell in my body shift. ‘Something horrible has happened. We need to find Becca.’ I posted on her boyfriend’s Facebook, ‘Where is Rebecca?!’ My family watched with confusion.”
‘Women tell girls to ‘never depend on a man’ as if it makes you less of a woman. Well, call me weak. I depend on this man right here.’: Woman admits she ‘needs, depends on’ husband despite criticism
“I’m not scared to say I depend on my husband for so much, and that doesn’t make me weak. In fact, it takes a strong person to depend on someone else with their whole heart. He’s my home base, the one always there to help carry whatever life throws at me. I’m showing my kids that a strong woman is one who knows how to depend on a man without losing herself along the way.”
‘My core friends left me forever. Girls can be mean. Women can be vicious. It’s terrifying to put yourself out there.’: Mom says making REAL new mom friends is scary, but when you do, ‘hang on to it’
“My husband, who is usually ridiculously patient, pulled out his phone. He gently suggested I stop whining and tried selling me on potential new friendships with everyone he knew: What about Tom’s wife? She seems nice? Maybe Tammy from work? I bet you’d like her. ‘No, dear husband, everyone knows Tammy is literally the worst. She’s always trying to sell magic stretch-mark cream to whoever will listen. She is a know-it-all and a gossip.’ I wasn’t having it.”
