An anonymous story about battling the frightening unpredictabilies of life..
This is my short story of a manipulative and emotionally abusive friend.
Myself (female) and a mutual friend (male) had become friends in which the friendship escalated very quickly, and at a pace that was too fast and uncomfortable for myself. The friendship started off light, however within weeks became quite suffocating and invasive by:
- Constant calls whilst I was at work
- Constant messages
- Messaging my friends about me
- Asking to meet up all the time
- Telling me to quit work as it wasn’t good for me “mental health” to spend more time with him
- Telling me my weight loss looks disgusting and skeleton like
- Making fun of me
- Asking me to accompany him on dates with girls I knew so I could “big him up” to the girls.
- Angry when I would interact with other male friends
- Ask to stay over
- Anger outbursts
- Always lying and making up stories
- Calling my friends names and not liking them
- Turn up to my place
- Etc…. many more….. (you get the gist)
After a while, it became known that this was reoccurring with a few different girls, making them cry by horrible and manipulating compliments. Baring in mind, it was quite difficult to cut him off as we had many mutual friends.
Down the line, these events reoccurred, which led to a severe panic attack in hospital, which resulted in severe chest pain and long-term medication.
Eventually I decided to block him and all of our mutual friends as this was the only option left to do. Luckily Covid-19 interrupted the situation naturally, but if not, a group of us had decided to report him in order to get a restraining order.
This story has been made very brief, but I hope that anyone suffering or has suffered from this sort of situation before can speak up and seek help from whoever it may be, as at the time I didn’t tell anyone until my friends started to notice a chance in my mood etc. Although this type of behaviour isn’t of physical kind and when in the situation, it seems harmless, it is not. This is emotional abuse which can eventually affect ones mental health. So please, open up to your friends, family, whoever it might be who can help you. I wouldn’t have been able to get out of the situation without seeking advice and comfort from trusted loved ones.