DEAR DR. NERDLOVE: Longtime reader here, first time writer and not a native English speaker so please excuse any mistakes. You sometimes tackle the topic of friendships instead of romantic love so I wanted to get an outsider’s perspective on my situation. 

For context, I (29/f) attended private schools throughout my childhood thanks to different scholarship, but that meant I was smart, nerdy, of lower economic status than my peers, extremely shy and, to top it all off, my body started to develop early (which lead to insecurities about my body that I haven’t quite managed to overcome). Needless to say, I was bullied mercilessly. I have no experience with male bullying but female bullying is… I guess I’d call it insidious. I had instances when sometimes other girls pretended to be my friends only to gossip behind my back and I was isolated and lonely. Now that I’m an adult, I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t care what others think about me but, at the time, I was naïve and trusting. So, tl;dr: I didn’t have any friends at all for several of my formative years. 

When I was about 12 years old, a new girl joined my school and we hit it off right away. We developed an extremely close friendship and she became my first true friend. All the way until I moved to college we stayed in constant contact and I considered her my sister. I moved to a city not too far away, (about 3 hours) and I went back to our city 2 or 3 times a month to visit my parents so I absolutely tried my best to keep in touch. I sent her e-mails weekly talking about my experiences and asked her to respond, I scheduled lunches and tried my best to keep her in my life. Even with all of my efforts, we started to grow apart and, when she married, she invited me to the wedding but I was not included in any part of the planning. I didn’t demand anything and was always open to help in whatever capacity I could, but it hurt me deeply that she just wasn’t working at all in our friendship. 

I was so emotionally involved with her as my friend that some people though I was in love with her or that we were in a romantic relationship, however that wasn’t the case at all. For the longest time, I even thought I was asexual and aromantic (I’m married myself now to a wonderful guy). She is an active poster on social media but I don’t like social media sites and I’m of the idea that if someone wants me to know something, they should tell me directly, otherwise relationships lose that personal touch. So, over the years we lost contact. She stopped responding to my messages and I couldn’t bear the idea of stalking her on Facebook or Twitter. It is very difficult for me to form close attachments, so to this friendship I gave it my all, tried to be supportive of her even if sometimes I disagreed with her (example: even though I believe her husband was not the best option for her I kept most of my opinions to myself after ). In the end, I let if fade away and moved on with my life. 

There was a few years ago a situation in my city that made it to the news and she sent me a message through FB to check on me but I didn’t respond, first because I didn’t see it right away and then, because I was hurt by the radio silence and wanted to get back at her (petty, I know). Some more years pass until last year she sent me a message again asking if we could talk. I answered her and we started discussing the usual, how was I, how was my family, her family and such. I learned that a close family relative of hers passed away (maybe that was the reason she contacted me again in the first place) and eventually, we started to talk about our friendship and the reasons behind our distancing. She told me that when I moved to college, she became jealous of me and my new opportunities and that that was the primary reason behind her closing off and excluding me from her life. The comment cut deeply and opened wounds that I thought had closed. I started crying and trying to understand where we went wrong  and in the end she promised to keep in touch because she wanted to rekindle our friendship, she told me that she missed me and that she didn’t have any other friend that knew her as well as me.

She didn’t keep her promise to contact me again at the time. She sent me a message again a few months ago so petty me decided to not answer in a futile attempt to hurt her back because obviously she doesn’t care as much about me if she can’t keep her promises. So, after the novella-length letter, my question is: Is it worth it to try and rekindle the friendship? Should I try to contact her again?  Should I open myself to further heartbreak if this doesn’t work? I miss her a lot and she knows things about me that very few do. And, apparently I haven’t gotten over this issue as much as I thought if months pass and I still think about what to do. She lives in a different country now so meeting in person would be difficult, it would be a long-distance friendship. 

Thank you for your time reading my rambling letter.

Best regards, 

Broken Friends Forever

DEAR BROKEN FRIENDS FOREVER: So, some thoughts on friendship…

For all that we as a culture focus so much of our time and attention on romantic relationships and what it takes to make them work, we tend to neglect friendships and the fact that those require care and maintenance too. Friendships can be just as intense and meaningful as romantic or sexual relationships — even moreso in some cases. It’s all too easy to forget that friendships don’t “just happen”, nor are they self-maintaining.

And, unfortunately, like a lot of romantic relationships, not every friendship is going to last. Some friendships are inherently temporal; they are relationships of the moment, based around who you are at this particular place and time. As you grow and change, those friendships tend to fade away — not because they were never “real” or “true”, but because you and your friend are no longer who you were when you started as friends. You, for all intents and purposes, outgrew your friendship. Others… well, others whither and die from neglect. Sometimes that neglect is intentional. Sometimes it’s accidental, like getting too distracted to remember to water a plant. But regardless of the reason, the effect is the same: the friendship falls apart.

And sometimes… well,  sometimes it’s a mixture of all of the above.

Case in point, BFF: the way you and your friend lost touch. There was always going to be some strain on the relationship as you and she went off to college; much like romantic relationships, a lot of middle school and high-school friends tend to find that they’ve drifted apart. This isn’t terribly surprising, honestly. At college — or moving away from home, or other transitional periods of life — you’re meeting new people, having new experiences and trying new identities… you are becoming your new, adult self. And because you’re doing so without your old friends around, you’re growing and changing in ways that may well be changing how well you and they can mesh.

That, it seems, is at least part of why you and your friend started to drift away. Her jealousy of what you were experiencing clearly made her worry that you were going to leave her behind; rather than deal with the seemingly inevitable friend-breakup, she decided to distance herself first. It’s not the most mature decision she could have made, nor a kind one, but one can at least can understand the reasoning behind it.

Y’know.

If you squint.

But unfortunately, that is what ultimately set the stage for the two of you falling apart, because that’s what seems to have set off a pernicious and honestly kinda petty tit-for-tat afterwards.

Now, remember what I said about growing apart and the people you are no longer meshing? That’s part of what happens next. What we have in your letter is a classic case of failing to meet someone where they are. Social media, for all its sins, has become a cornerstone of how we connect and maintain interpersonal relationships. Your friend lives a lot of her life on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter… that’s part of who she is. Maintaining a connection with her means that social media would be part of the price of entry. That seems to be a primary point of contact for her — as it is for a lot of folks these days. So if you want to interact with her, then you’re gonna have to be on the Instabooktoks. Preferring to keep social media out of your life is a fine choice and, going by what Facebook has done to the world, a smart one. But that means having less of an opportunity to find out what your friend is up to.

The fact that you prefer that someone tell you directly what’s been going on, over reading their posts or pics? That’s a choice. It may be right for you… but that choice also means that you’re going to have less contact with your friend. That doesn’t mean that you or she are in the wrong; it just means that you and she aren’t meshing the way you used to.

However, it’s what happened afterwards that more or less drove the nail into the coffin. There were a number of times where your friend reached out and you ignored it. Her reaching out to you after the incident in your city was a bid for your attention. By trying to get back at her, you rejected her bid. You functionally told her “I’m not interested in communicating with you anymore”. This is part of the problem with giving folks the silent treatment; they don’t know what you’re doing or why. They just know you’re ignoring them. Absent any other information, they’re going to assume that this means you don’t like them and you don’t want to talk to them.

Small wonder, then, it took years for her to try again. And even then: you made the same decision. You ignored her again, even after you and she had that conversation where she tried to clear the air and — importantly — was making another bid to try to reconnect with you. I’m not surprised that you don’t hear from her; the times she’s tried, you’ve rejected her.

It’s understandable that you’re upset and somewhat resentful of the long stretches of time where you never heard from her. But it seems that, especially after the first attempt to check in on you, you haven’t made any effort to connect with her. You can say that you’re upset that she wasn’t putting in as much work as you were, but honestly, by this point you’d sent enough “f--k off and die” silence that I’m not surprised she didn’t try harder. You were functionally punishing her for doing the things that you wanted; small wonder the message she took from this is “BFF doesn’t want to talk to me.”

In an ideal world, when she reached back out to you — either when she checked on you after the incident, or after the “can we talk” message — you would’ve taken this as an opportunity to start a new friendship with her. It would’ve been one colored by your shared history, sure, but so much time had passed and you two had changed so much that this would be a new friendship for all intents and purposes. And one of the uncomfortable truths is that, especially in the early days, some folks are going to be putting in more work than others. Not every relationship — platonic, sexual or romantic — is perfectly balanced, and especially not at the beginning. Some folks tend to do more work than others and then an equilibrium is found.

You and she never found that, in part because you were nursing those grudges about feeling abandoned.

Which brings us to now. Can this friendship be saved? Honestly… I don’t know. If I’m blunt, I don’t think it can, in part because you keep letting your ego get in the way. You keep wanting her to “learn her lesson”, but all you’re doing is saying “I don’t want to talk to you.” Nor, for that matter, are you willing to bend and meet her where she is. If your view of “second or third hand knowledge is bad” is more important than keeping up with her… well, that’s a choice. But it’s one that’s going to keep you and her from being friends again.

If you want to be friends, then you’re going to have to address the pain you’ve been feeling ever since you went off to college. However, at this point it’s self-inflicted, self-sustaining pain, because you never let the wounds heal and you pick at them whenever she reaches out. That’s work you are gonna have to do for yourself.

The other thing you’re going to have to do is accept that, for now, you’re going to have to model the behavior you want to see from her. That means being willing to shove the whole “she’s not putting in as much effort as me” feeling aside and recognize that you burned the bridges you’re trying to rebuild here. You may not have realized that’s what you were doing… but the bridges got burned regardless. So if you want that friendship back, you’re gonna have to put in a lot of work until she realizes that you do want to be friends again, that you do want to reconnect and that you’re sincere in trying to stay in touch. Until and unless you do that and she can get over the hurt you have likely caused her?

Well… then the only thing you can do is let this friendship go.

Good luck.

Please send your questions to Dr. NerdLove at his website (www.doctornerdlove.com/contact); or to his email, doc@doctornerdlove.com

DEAR DR. NERDLOVE: I’ve got this ex, and we’re friends. We’re exes because the stars didn’t align for us, and that’s it. We’ve been close for ten years, on and off, and I really love her. We’ll call her Amber.

Seven years ago, her boyfriend, we’ll call him Cory, ghosted her (but didn’t block her or unfriend her on Facebook) when she violated his trust. Five years ago, she stopped reaching out to him. She always talked about him with regret, but lately it’s been turned up to eleven. She’s been speculating about how serious he really was about removing her from his life. She started watching his semi-popular livestreams, and she even sent him a harmless message anonymously. I check out my crush’s Insta every once in a while, so I don’t think I can judge.

And then it went to twelve. She decided she was going to send him a letter. At first, she was going to write and not send it, but as time went on, she became more determined to send it. I told her that he made it clear he didn’t want to hear from her, and she responded that maybe he did want to get in touch with her, and he just needed permission. I decided I was going to help her write the letter so it didn’t come across as pushy or threatening. She sent it. Surprising no one but Amber, he didn’t respond. I thought the matter was settled.

The amp goes up to thirteen, folks, because now she assumes that he changed his email, and he never got the message. Now she wants to comment, as herself, on one of his livestreams, the prospect of which is making me queasy in the stomach region. He’s going to have to be polite to her because he has to, and she’s going to take that as confirmation. At this point, I used the word “obsessing” and “unhealthy” to her, and she said that she would simply stop talking to me about it, matter settled. I feel sorry for the guy, but it’s not my problem anymore.

She publicly vaguebooked about how when someone tells her not to do something, she’s more inclined to do it because “nobody tells me what to do.” Taking this as a personal attack (which it was), I publicly responded that she sounded like an anti-vaxxer, and now, suddenly, I feel like it’s my problem again.

I’m really, really worried about her. This obsession of hers is unhealthy, and, as someone who has his own stalker, I really feel for this guy. I’m also thinking about walking away from her for a while and letting things develop without me. But I keep going back to, the fact that, for seven years, Cory has not acknowledged the existence of Amber, and now suddenly he gets an email from her, and a message on his livestream? What would be going on in his head for this. Would he get scared? I would. And, more importantly, what does this mean for my relationship with Amber. Is this going to be the hill our relationship dies on?

What am I supposed to do here?

Sincerely,

Leaps and Boundaries

DEAR LEAPS AND BOUNDARIES: There’s the snarky part of me that wants to ask if this is related to the last time I got a “I want to date my favorite Twitch streamer”, but that’s not terribly helpful.

So there’re two parts to this. First is the question of “how bad is this, really,” which I think needs to be addressed — both on her end and what her actions are, or might be doing to Cory.

Part of the problem I have with calling her behavior dangerous or obsessive is that there’s a distinct lack of detail in your letter. You don’t say why Cory ghosted her — just that she violated his trust. That’s one of those things that would be an important detail that could explain why he would just ghost her instead of having a proper break-up. “Violated his trust” covers a wide range of possibilities or actions; some would be heinous and make it clear that Cory peaced-out because he felt it wasn’t safe to confront her, while others would make Cory the asshole for just up and leaving without a word. Nor, for that matter, do you mention how long they were together; weeks, months, years, etc. All of that adds context to her actions and makes it easier to tell just how bad things are or aren’t.

That lack of detail and specificity, likewise, makes it a little difficult to say “yup, this is bad.” Since you don’t share what the first draft of her letter said (assuming that there was a first draft before you got involved) or what she wanted to write that might have seemed threatening or pushy, it’s hard to make any sort of judgement call. Without that sort of info, it’s more or less impossible to gauge how potentially threatening any of this is or how bad it’s likely to be — especially for Cory.

Similarly, you don’t say that she’s acting in ways that seem untethered to reality in dangerous ways or that her attitude towards him has become vengeful or threatening or anything other than… well, painfully awkward, honestly.

Looking at  things from Cory’s end, if I’m being honest, I don’t think I would round up to being dangerous or likely to cause him to feel threatened. Thus far, what we’ve got is “sent an anonymous message” and “sent an email”. Even if she decides to comment in the chat… I dunno, her behavior doesn’t seem to be escalating in dangerous directions or in ways that would make him feel under threat. Mostly this comes across like someone’s ex who’s full of regret and Wild Turkey messaging them at 2 AM going “Hey, WYD?” or occasionally sliding into their DMs and trying to flirt awkwardly.

Now to be fair: there’s a gendered aspect to this. While women can and have been stalkers and 1 in 17 men have been victims of stalking, according to the CDC, as a general rule women tend to present less of a threat to men than men do to women. This doesn’t mean that s--t can’t go badly or that he can’t decide that yes, he does feel threatened by her behavior. But what you present in your letter doesn’t sound like she’s dangerous, threatening or causing stress, emotional or mental harm to him right now.

I should say: she’s not exactly covering herself in glory here. While it sucks that she got ghosted by her boyfriend… dude ignored her attempts to get in touch for two years straight. What I’ve said about online dating applies here too: no reply is a reply. It’s the other person saying “I’m not interested,” and as much as folks may not like hearing that, the only real choice is to accept it and move on. And unfortunately Amber doesn’t seem to have absorbed that particular message. But while she seems willing to ignore the glaringly obvious — if he’d changed his email, she would’ve gotten a bounce back, not echoing silence — this sounds more like an awkward attempt to get closure on her terms than some Fatal Attraction-esque “I will not be ignored, Dan!” escalation.

The same goes for her whole “nobody tells me what to do” schtick. If I’m being honest, this mostly sounds like kinda cringe “Yas queen/girl-boss!” self-aggrandizement by someone hoping that their friends will have her back and justify her making what she knows is a stupid decision. That doesn’t come across as “We were meant to be together and I’ll stop at nothing until he’s mine”, it sounds more like someone getting upset that her friends told her that she needs to dial back on the drinks when they’re out on the town.

Does any of this mean that things can’t or won’t escalate to dangerous levels? Of course not; it’s certainly a possibility. Is it likely? Well, ye olde magic eight-ball says “signs point to no”. Not with the information that you’ve presented, in any case.

Which brings us to the second part: what do you do about this?

Well, to be blunt, the wise answer would’ve been to say “not my farm, not my pigs,” and wash your hands of the whole mess long before it ever got to this point.

I’m not entirely sure why you decided to get neck deep in this. It’s one thing to say “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Yogi.” It’s another to, y’know, be directly involved to the point of helping her write her letter to the dude. While I get that you’ve got a stalker of your own and I sympathize… your actions weren’t exactly de-escalating things. If anything, it could be argued that you were enabling her by participating to the level that you did rather than shutting her down and telling her that this was a horrible idea.

Similarly, you had an out. She got pissed that you were telling her to knock it off and she said “fine, I’m not going to talk about this with you.” And hey that was it! You were free! You could have moved on from this! But responding to her vaguebooking about you instead of, I dunno, rolling your eyes and just muting the thread, seems to have given you reason to get involved in this s--t again for reasons that I just don’t get.

But quite frankly, you’re not helping here. You’re not helping Cory, especially as you’re making unfounded guesses on his mental state, nor are you convincing Amber to make like Elsa and let it go. You’ve functionally inserted yourself into a situation that is ultimately causing you more stress, but isn’t otherwise doing any good for anyone.

My take on this is simple: it’s time to peace out, cub scout. You’re not in contact with Cory, so you’re making assumptions on his behalf. You’re not changing Amber’s mind or otherwise getting her to change course here. All you’re doing is working yourself up into a froth over this and apparently reopening your own emotional wounds which ain’t good for you. And honestly, I think you’re transposing your own feelings about your experiences — which are awful and I’m sorry you’ve gone through that — onto Cory. Unless Amber’s behavior is escalating or is threatening, I think “my ex just popped up in the comments” isn’t going to cause Cory great distress.

If you want Amber to think twice about what she’s doing, then let her pay a social price for it. Drop her like fifth period French and tell her that it’s because her actions to Cory are too close to what you went through with your own stalker, so that she understands why you’re cutting ties. She can reach out to you if and when she’s let this go,  gotten over things and gotten some help. If things are actually escalating to the point that she’s causing Cory emotional harm, then hell yes this is a friendship-termination offense. This is a hill that relationships should die on. Why in pluperfect f--kery wouldn’t you end this relationship if she’s acting in a dangerous or threatening manner?

Unless it really is just someone being a bit cringe because they can’t accept a bad break up, even after seven goddamn years.

Now, if you have reason to believe that this might actually be stressful or harmful to Cory, then you could drop him — or his chat moderators — a line and let them know that Amber’s planning on doing this and to give them a head’s up. This way the mods can be on the look out for her and head her off before Cory has a chance of seeing it. This also would give Cory the opportunity to weigh his own options, as well as start a potential paper trail for a TRO, should things ever get to that point.

But again: that’s assuming that there’s reason to believe that Amber is going to escalate to dangerous levels or that Cory is likely to experience harm from this.

Otherwise, though? Cut Amber loose, let her know why you’re doing it, and then tap out of the whole situation.  Not your farm, not your pigs.

Good luck.

Please send your questions to Dr. NerdLove at his website (www.doctornerdlove.com/contact); or to his email, doc@doctornerdlove.com

DEAR DR. NERDLOVE: 41 yr old cis woman here. Love your blog, it has helped me understand men better and also gives me hope for those you save. Seems like you have your hands full most days!

I’m wondering if you’ll help me process something that happened last night. For context, I’ve been off/on online dating for almost 10 years. It serves me well, I have met plenty of great guys. I’m a redhead, a bit of a niche market, but I get enough swipes and responses.

This is more of a wtf-specific question, to shed some light on this behavior and possibly find some sort of a cautionary tale. The punchline: Some first-date dude ran for it while I was in the bathroom as the check was on the way.

There hadn’t been any major red flags… he was good at messaging on the app, respected my wishes not to exchange numbers before meeting. I said I am not looking for a serious relationship now (getting out of a COVID-limbo break up), and he said he was but was open to more casual dating while looking. He told me he would pay for my dinner, and I replied thanks and that that was not expected or necessary.

During the date he was firing off questions non-stop. I just thought he was nervous. He did ask one weird question, though, before the appetizers got there. He asked what my most embarrassing moment was. I’m not good at thinking up answers on the spot and told him so; he told me that his was giving a past girlfriend an Easter Basket for Valentines Day (??).

Also, I mentioned that I had just gotten my first unsolicited dick pic (guess after 10 years, that’s not too bad), and had sent that guy a text about consent and boundaries before blocking. He replied that women did that too, and that at least twice he had been sent unsolicited boob pictures, that apparently were of terribly unattractive boobs (?).

Everything else was pretty standard first-date stuff, awkwardness, flirtation, etc. As we ordered a box for leftovers, I went to the bathroom and he was just gone. He had dropped his mask on the floor and ran for it. I asked our server about it and she had others looking for him with no luck. Probably about 30 minutes passed before I left.

The servers felt so bad for me that they used their tip money to cover his half and gave me free tiramisu (which is probably the actual moral of this story). Strangely, he did send me one more message on the app, saying it was nice to meet me and that he needed to get his back medicine out of the car (?). I told him to go f--k himself and asked if he was proud of having servers use their tip money to bail him out before blocking.

I have other delightful options, so the rejection doesn’t sting, and I got more love from the restaurant staff than I ever get out of a first date anyway, but I am upset that there are these kinds of douchebags running wild in the world. Who else has he tried to shame?

So… did I meet an undercover Proud Boy? I’d love your (non-professional) perspective on the psychology behind this weird dating experience that has already become a funny story.

Thanks for all you do!

Sincerely,

Confused And Dating

DEAR CONFUSED AND DATING: Well on the plus side, CaD, you’ve got a hell of a story to tell on future dates…

So, there’s plenty to question here, and the part that leaps out at me is his firing off questions, culminating with the whole “what’s your most embarrassing moment,” part. Peppering you with questions in general sounds like nerves or misunderstanding the whole concept of “interested is interesting.” Perhaps he thought that by asking lots of questions was the same as finding commonalities or being an interesting conversationalist, rather than coming off like he was conducting a job interview. Asking about your most embarrassing moment, on the other hand, sounds a bit more like something he may have read on a PUA forum. Maybe he thought that this would open up an opportunity to take things in a sexual manner or that sharing an embarrassing story would lead to… I dunno, emotional vulnerability or some s--t?

The same goes for his whole “I got unsolicited nudes” bit. Beyond a real “citation needed”, it sounds like this was supposed to somehow open up conversation about sending nudes but he got it twisted and inadvertently came off as trying to one-up you.

Though, if I’m being honest, I don’t think that you need to really analyze this too deeply. Whether he’s painfully awkward and weird, or this was some bizarre master plan ultimately doesn’t matter. For whatever reason, the dude decided that his best course of action was to just yeet himself out the window instead of a slightly more sensible “thanks, didn’t really feel a connection, best of luck” conversation afterwards. And really, his reasoning is, honestly, kind of irrelevant. It’s fun to speculate, sure. Maybe he’s that conflict averse. Maybe this was some attempt at viral TikTok fame… is #dateanddashchallenge a trend now? But will knowing why change anything? Not really. All that ultimately matters is that the dude GTFO’d at speed and left you holding the bag, literally and metaphorically.

The message at the end is just the bizarre cherry on the top of this particularly nutty sundae, but again, whether this was his trying to salvage a shred of ego or just part of the game doesn’t matter. Assholes are gonna ass.

The only thing I wish you’d done differently was to Venmo him an invoice for the bill and a hefty tip besides so that you could go back and reimburse the staff after being so generous that they comped your meal out of their own pockets. Dude owes them that at least; they went above and beyond because of his dickbaggery. It’s one thing for you to pay a “get away from the asshole” tax; it’s another to dump it on folks in the service industry at a time when s--t’s dire enough as it is.

Anyway. Chalk this one up to the weirdness of dating in the modern era, maybe use it as fodder for a short story in the future but otherwise, I think we can let this dude just sink into the realm of “so what’s your worst first date?” stories for when you’re on a date with more deserving men.

Good luck.

Please send your questions to Dr. NerdLove at his website (www.doctornerdlove.com/contact); or to his email, doc@doctornerdlove.com