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Overly attached to my friend?

I have a friend who I think I’m overly attached to. We’re in our final year of sixth form, have been friends since year 7, and are quite close. I treat her really well. I always try to cheer her up, help her whenever possible, tell her she looks lovely, and sometimes even buy her things. And I feel like 70% of the time, my efforts are not reciprocated. There are periods of time where she’ll reciprocate and we’ll feel like the best friends on the entire planet. But a lot of the time, like today, she acts kind of off with me. I know one of the first comments is gonna be “stop doing those things for her if she doesn’t reciprocate.” But that’s my problem. I think I’m so attached to her that I literally can’t stop. I get really upset when she talks to me and doesn’t seem enthusiastic. I also take it personally when she’s in a bad mood and responds to me bluntly. I feel that it’s because I’m not trying hard enough as a friend. Which encourages me to try harder. Does anyone have any advice? I want to stop feeling like this. I want to be able to stand up for myself and stop being so attached to someone who clearly isn’t as attached to me. I just want us to be NORMAL friends.
Stop doing those things for her if she doesn’t reciprocate...
Reply 2
Original post by Anonymous
I have a friend who I think I’m overly attached to. We’re in our final year of sixth form, have been friends since year 7, and are quite close. I treat her really well. I always try to cheer her up, help her whenever possible, tell her she looks lovely, and sometimes even buy her things. And I feel like 70% of the time, my efforts are not reciprocated. There are periods of time where she’ll reciprocate and we’ll feel like the best friends on the entire planet. But a lot of the time, like today, she acts kind of off with me. I know one of the first comments is gonna be “stop doing those things for her if she doesn’t reciprocate.” But that’s my problem. I think I’m so attached to her that I literally can’t stop. I get really upset when she talks to me and doesn’t seem enthusiastic. I also take it personally when she’s in a bad mood and responds to me bluntly. I feel that it’s because I’m not trying hard enough as a friend. Which encourages me to try harder. Does anyone have any advice? I want to stop feeling like this. I want to be able to stand up for myself and stop being so attached to someone who clearly isn’t as attached to me. I just want us to be NORMAL friends.

OP here: I just wanna add that sometimes she’s really nice to me, tells me I’m pretty, tell someone me I’m smart. And other times she isn’t so nice. She makes fun of me sometimes and says things that she wouldn’t be very happy with if I said them to her. But, unlike a normal person, I don’t have the ability to just give her a taste of her own medicine😔
Try and find a way to reduce those habits, like when u notice yourself doing those things that you think are clingy then try and tone it down. It sounds hard but i'm sure you can do it lol. ALSO make sure that you know you're the issue, maybe your friend isn't being so nice but idk. Hope that helped in some way lol
I don't think it's always necessary to treat people exactly as they treat you. For example: I like to think I'm quite generous, and some of my friends are not, but rather than constantly worrying about tit for tat, I just remind myself they have qualities I don't have (one of them is super considerate, another one is a great listener etc.) and that's fine. You can just be kind for the sake of it, rather than because you expect to get the exact same thing in return.

Of course I'm not saying you should let someone take advantage of you, and if you feel things are off, they probably are - but I do think there shouldn't always be an exactly even balance in all things for a friendship to work.
Reply 5
Keep some distance and let your friends have some space as you may be suffocating her with being overly too nice or she may be experiencing some personal difficulties.

We dont know her or you, so its best you be open about it with her whilst giving each other space to do your own things.
another classic tsr response: "cut them off straight away they are toxic"

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