I’m 24F and I haven’t been able to keep friends around for longer than a year or two all my life. I’m autistic, was an immigrant child who got bullied a lot growing up, and my family constantly moved to a new city every 2 years or so, so that definitely made it very difficult for me. I have had several close friendships throughout my life and I never got into any fights or had any kind of falling out with any of these people. However, I often find that my closest friends would gradually talk to me less and less until I just never hear from them again and I never know where I went wrong. I was definitely very shy and awkward growing up but as I got older, gained more life experience, and moved out of my parents’ house years ago, I found that I became a lot more outgoing and open to meeting and connecting with people.

I moved to my current city a year ago and met my only two friends. We were all hanging out every other weekend and I felt like I genuinely became really close with them as we always went out to do fun things with their social circle that I felt like I became a part of and connected on a really deep emotional level. There was never a dull moment and we would all consistently stay in touch via text/social media.

However, in early May I noticed that wouldn’t hear from them as much. I immediately jumped to the worst of conclusions and assumed that I did something wrong and they secretly hate me. It got to the point that we wouldn’t talk unless I reached out first (which I would only do once a week because I’m afraid of coming off as annoying)

Last week, one of the guys reached out to me and asked if I wanted to hang out . It was a great night, no complaints. The following night, I ran into him at a bar. He was with a group of people, but ditched them to keep hanging with me. Eventually, we both got pretty tipsy and vulnerable, turning the night out into a therapy session. I was afraid that I overshared/trauma dumped/made it all about me at first but we texted again in the morning and it seemed like everything was fine. I had to go to a job interview later that day and he said that he was going to a show in the same neighborhood. When I got to the place, the hiring manager never showed and wouldn’t return my calls so I figured I would reach out to my friend and ask where the show was going to be since I was already there— he left me on read and I just went home. The following day, I was scrolling through instagram and saw that he and the whole friend group went out without me, no invite, nothing. Maybe I’m overreacting, but I was really upset and couldn’t help but think that I did something wrong, they all hate me, and they only hung out with me before because they felt bad for me or something. I also haven’t heard from friend #2 in almost three weeks except for 2 times where I ran into him at the grocery store and we just exchanged a quick “hi”.

Given my history, i should be used to losing friends all the time but for some reason I’m unable to handle rejection in any capacity, overreact to the smallest changes in a person’s behavior, and take everything personally. I’m afraid of reaching out again and coming off as needy, but I’m also afraid of losing my friends because I feel like I’ve made genuinely good connections with both of them. Am I overreacting or is there genuinely something that I could be doing wrong?

1 comment
  1. I feel you. I have felt a lot like you and I want to say your feelings are not overreacting. Humans are meant to be friends and need socializing to be happy. You don’t get used to this kind of rejection. That being said, your friends probably just feel like you aren’t interested in them anymore since you distance yourself from them. The paranoia you feel about others hating you is only your brain talking. However people have their own problems and sometimes handling your sadness can be to much for others on top of their own life. Have you got counseling options? Not because I think you are sick, but because it helps to talk.

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