by Cathleen Garvey

Created on: February 18, 2010

Dealing With a Broken Friendship

Life is an amazing journey.  Every single day is a gift and an opportunity to explore the endless new experiences and wealth of knowledge that is just outside your door.  Each morning as you step outside there are millions of intriguing people just waiting to make your acquaintance and share each tender and bittersweet moment with you.  Nowadays you don't even need to go outside to form new friendships, the Internet has brought the personalities, wisdom and knowledge of millions of individuals right into your home.  But we humans are creatures of habit; the strongest friendships are usually cemented in the natural world with the people we share our high school and college years with.  Friendships are born in the workplace, in coffee shops, and anywhere that offers human contact.  But unfortunately as with everything in life these relationships occasionally come to an end, and sometimes it is better to let those friendships go gracefully than to hang on to a situation that could eventually become destructive.

Friendships get better with age.  Many of us still keep in contact with our best friends from childhood, the ones we shared our first secrets with, our first crush and all the milestones of our teenage years.  These individuals still remember us as the shy, awkward kid on our first day of school.  They can recount all the life changing events and twists and turns that make us who we are.  There is nothing better than sitting down with an old friend and setting the world to rights over a glass of wine, or recounting stories and hilarious memories of the past.  A simple fact of life is that people change, we all progress in our lives and take paths that can separate us from our friends whether it be marriage, moving home, or a career change.  This can prove difficult if one friend is left behind as the other progresses with their life.  Happiness for the other can quickly turn to resentment if they are unhappy with their own situation, and can even begin to make the other feel guilty for leaving them behind. 

So what do we do in this situation?  First of all you have to establish if the friendship has the potential to become damaging.  We are not perfect and some of us can lash out and attempt to control the lives of others through guilt, manipulation and jealousy.  You may think that anyone capable of these emotions cannot be considered a

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