Author Topic: How do you deal with a "friend" who has mistreated you your whole life?  (Read 1877 times)

kutuup

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So on top of everything, I was recently party to some pretty nasty revelations. To cut a long story short, I found out that the person I considered my best friend for pretty much my whole childhood had some less than favourable opinions of me the whole time. Turns out when I wasn't around he would talk to people about how he "felt sorry for me" because I couldn't succeed where he has and all the girls I liked prefer him. This is a guy who has no qualifications due to being expelled from every school he ever went to, while I saw my education through and got a degree. As for "all the girls I liked preferring him", I can't say either way on that one, but that's not the sort of thing a person says about their friends. I decided a while back to stay single until I'm in a better place, so I haven't really been looking to be honest. He's been single just as long, though. Anyway, this isn't about who's been single longer, or relationships in general.

What this IS about is that I spent my entire childhood with the person I thought was my best friend slagging me off left right and centre and seeing me as some kind of pet he had to feel sorry for because he was better than me somehow. How do you deal with that? I suppose it makes sense of my social anxiety issues. I always suspected that was how it was. Surely it stands to reason that I would have trouble ever trusting other people? So what am I supposed to do now that it's confirmed?

I think a lot of my problems come from never being treated as an equal as a kid, especially by this guy, so I learned that I was a subordinate. That has to change, for my own sake. So this guy is out of my life for good, I'm not going near him again, but how do I build some self respect after all that??

It's been a bad day :(

(although I'm glad I got through that without my usual pottymouth, so that's something :P)

Pip

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I can never understand people like that.  My mum used to moan about me being a complete walkover where friends were concerned.  She wasn't there to see when they stuck up for me.  I know it was probably because I was more generous with time, sharing and so on.  On the other side of the coin they were always there for me when I needed them the most such as the rare occasion anybody tried to bully me.  I lost touch with them but we've recently got in touch again.  The people I knew that behaved the way this friend has have completely changed for the better.  It doesn't help you or make you feel better.     

kutuup

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I'm not sure you understood my meaning there, maybe I worded it wrong. I actually want this guy out of my life for what he did. He never did a thing for me my whole life.

I think my problem goes deeper than that, though. I find that I don't like the majority of people I know. What makes me worry is how hypocritical I am. I dislike people just for being ugly or fat. Why do I do that uncontrollably? I've been there. So why do I feel this animosity towards these people? I'm not sure whether it's that they're ugly or fat that makes me dislike them, maybe it's that the people I tend to dislike are, in my opinion, stupid. I don't want to be shallow, so why am I? I think intelligence is the big thing for me, someone can be huge, or unattractive, but if they're clever, I'm fine with them. It even goes down to the guys I do a weekly podcast with. They just annoy me, they're dumb as rocks, but also overweight and kinda gross. Why do I think this way? I hate it. I think maybe they wind me up in other ways, and I just presume it's because of how they look because that's my default, it's the biggest criticism I have of myself, so surely I'm likely to project that onto other people? I think they wind me up by acting like this podcast is something serious when we get 50 listeners a week if we're lucky, yet if I have to Skype in one week because I can't make it over, they get all serious and say things like "well we really need you here in person" and "I wonder how committed you are to this". I just want to say I'm doing this for free, I'm taking time out of my life to do this. We're not getting any downloads in real terms. This ISN'T serious business, why are you making it out to be something it's not??? I swear these people have the kind of expectations that if they do something, people owe it to them to respond positively to it. Like one of them is frankly a terrible musician, but he constantly publically bitches at people for not listening to his music. That's not the way you win people over, in fact, that's how you drive them away. It's like he thinks people owe him something.

Why am I so shallow after all I've been through?? It seems like my default feeling is to dislike people and hold them in contempt. Maybe it's a trust issue, I don't know. Maybe I learned to be this way by being mistreated by fake friends who leeched off me as a kid?

This is going to be a doozy to work through, I think.

craig84

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So on top of everything, I was recently party to some pretty nasty revelations. To cut a long story short, I found out that the person I considered my best friend for pretty much my whole childhood had some less than favourable opinions of me the whole time. Turns out when I wasn't around he would talk to people about how he "felt sorry for me" because I couldn't succeed where he has and all the girls I liked prefer him. This is a guy who has no qualifications due to being expelled from every school he ever went to, while I saw my education through and got a degree. As for "all the girls I liked preferring him", I can't say either way on that one, but that's not the sort of thing a person says about their friends. I decided a while back to stay single until I'm in a better place, so I haven't really been looking to be honest. He's been single just as long, though. Anyway, this isn't about who's been single longer, or relationships in general.

What this IS about is that I spent my entire childhood with the person I thought was my best friend slagging me off left right and centre and seeing me as some kind of pet he had to feel sorry for because he was better than me somehow. How do you deal with that? I suppose it makes sense of my social anxiety issues. I always suspected that was how it was. Surely it stands to reason that I would have trouble ever trusting other people? So what am I supposed to do now that it's confirmed?

I think a lot of my problems come from never being treated as an equal as a kid, especially by this guy, so I learned that I was a subordinate. That has to change, for my own sake. So this guy is out of my life for good, I'm not going near him again, but how do I build some self respect after all that??

It's been a bad day :(

(although I'm glad I got through that without my usual pottymouth, so that's something :P)

your already building self respect by deciding you don't want someone like that in your life! well done, ive been though something similar and I feel content that I have always treated people the way I expect to be treated, if anyone does me wrong I have nothing to do with them anymore I don't need that kind of negativity in my life.

id say you should feel proud for taking the actions you have with your old friend.  go you  :cheerleader:
”It’s always down to you and the choices you make. Work on the things you can change and never dwell on the things you can’t. You choose… ‘results’ or ‘excuses’ it’s always down to YOU… no one has ever given their BEST and regretted it. GO HARD NO EXCUSES.”