Do you have a friendship that has been causing you stress lately? Have you spent the majority of your time fighting with this friend? If so, it’s quite possible that it might be time for a friend-breakup. After all, whether it’s in a romantic relationship or not, people can grow apart. It’s a natural thing. When this happens, sometimes it is just too difficult to stay in each other’s lives. So, if you’re experiencing these 5 things in your friendship, it may be time for a friend-breakup.
1. The negative outweighs the positive in the friendship
At one point, the friendship brought you happiness and joy. You were excited to hang out with this friend. However, things have started to take a turn for the worse. Nowadays, this friendship usually just adds more stress to your already busy schedule. Perhaps you have been fighting a lot lately or this friend is just getting on your nerves. Even worse, maybe hanging out with your friend has now come to feel like a chore.
All of the little fights, which seemed insignificant and not worth ruining a friendship over, have started to pile up. And maybe all of these little fights together are becoming more important than the friendship. After all, if the friendship mainly revolves around disagreements and arguments, is it really brining something positive into your life? Probably not.
2. The friendship seems like a competition
Your friend, while she/he used to be happy for your accomplishments, never seems to support you. Perhaps the friendship has become competitive or you feel you can’t share your happiness with this friend because she/he might ruin it. Either way, you cannot depend on your friend anymore to be excited over the joys in your life.
In extreme cases, maybe you feel you can’t share your success or happiness with your friend because it will upset them. Sadly, it’s not unusual for certain friendships to become competitive and for jealousy to leak into them. If this is the case, it may be time to rip the metaphorical Band-Aid off and end the relationship.
3. You don’t like how you act when you are around them
This friend can become exceedingly frustrating and you just can’t seem to get along anymore. If you’re feeling angry the majority of the time towards this friendship, chances are you won’t like how you are acting around your friend. After all, who truly wants to spend their time yelling and being mad at others? If your friend simply causes stress and anger in your life, this is something you should probably let go of. It is time to cut any negative behaviour you are guilty of out of your life, even if that means you may have to end a friendship.
4. You are both just too different
Perhaps, you and your friend are simply too different, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Through university, people tend to grow into different people. However, while you may have met your friend when you were both on the same page, this may not be the case anymore. You may have different interests, different values, or perhaps you both want very different things in life. Therefore, while difference can be good in a friendship as it brings you more to learn from the relationship, there is such a thing as being too different. If the two of you simply have nothing in common anymore, perhaps it’s time to reconsider where this friendship is going.
5. You simply do not like them anymore
Finally, perhaps you just don’t like the person that they are anymore. This may stem from the fact that everyone changes and grows throughout their university career. While they may not necessarily be a bad person, they just aren’t the person you became friends with. Or perhaps it is you who has changed. It certainly goes both ways; it is likely that they feel you are different too! There is no shame in acknowledging that, perhaps, the friendship simply isn’t meant to be.
While friend-breakups are certainly a difficult thing, sometimes they are completely necessary. If this friendship is causing you more stress than happiness, it is time to re-evaluate the friendship. However, the most important thing to remember is that at one point you truly cared for this friend. Therefore, no matter what happens, one must always appreciate the friendship they had and trust the fact that it is for the better to split ways. This way, by ending things on a respectful note, the friendship that was shared will always be appreciated.
Sources: Cover
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