Anonymous' Story

Submitted by Anonymous

A couple of years ago, someone started to get really close to me. While I thought we went from barely talking to constant texting really quickly, I was happy to have someone talk to me, because there was no doubt in my mind that we were friends. They were texting me constantly, so they really liked me, right? However, I quickly became her negative feelings manager, handling her mood swings, and dealing with outburst after outburst, and since I was scared I wouldn't have friends if I didn't respond instantly, I kept listening to her. Every boundary I tried to set in the relationship was followed for maybe a day, and then I'd get yelled at for trying to help. I became so known for being her emotional manager that two of her friends reached out to me when they wanted to know if she was ok instead of asking her. I kept trying to help her, despite multiple people telling me it was a toxic relationship and that it was the reason I was crying every weekend, or emotionally unbalanced, or angry all the time. Finally, after maybe a year, she caught me on a bad day and I cut her off entirely, telling her it wasn't my responsibility to manage everything and that it wasn't fair to me, which was something I would probably never have done if my parents and friends hadn't sat me down and made me reevaluate my self-worth. It's probably pretty telling that my mood improved in 1-2 days after that.