People Reveal Why They Had To Cut Off Loved Ones

With friends like these...

“I had become rather germaphobic due to pre-existing heart and lung issues. My friends Fran and Linda knew this but decided to go full-court press with the story that a mutual friend, Mike, had called to let them know that he and another guy who I had been exposed to at a BBQ had both tested positive for COVID-19."

Getty

"I was angry that he hadn’t bothered to alert me as well, and I spent the next two weeks frantically calling every medical facility in the area, desperate to be tested. I finally got in touch with Mike, and he told me that he never claimed to have tested positive, but these ‘friends’ said things to me such as: ‘You’d better get right with God,’ and ‘Everybody’s got to go sometime.'”

“One of the two had called him to thank him for the event, and he mentioned that he was worn out from the day’s activities. I’d been friends with the two instigators for over 45 years. I eventually got tested after two weeks of self-quarantine and was negative for COVID-19, but I haven’t spoken with them since, and I don’t intend to.” —Anonymous, 65, NY

Talk about ignorant

“I dumped my anti-vaxxer best friend when my brother was in the hospital with COVID, and I was working in the medical field up to my eyeballs in COVID patients, and my friend started ranting about ‘It’s just the flu’ and ‘ventilators are dangerous.’ It had been a long time coming, and I was just done.” —lightnlife

Shutterstock

How do you come back from such a thorough betrayal?

“As my mother lay dying in a hospital bed, my two sisters and stepfather refused to tell me which hospital she was at. Once I found out, my sister had her police officer husband pretend to be an officer in that city, call me, and say that I threatened them with violence when I hadn’t even spoken to them."

"I called the hospital’s patient advocate, and the three of them told her that if she allowed me to come, they would leave her to die alone. Finally, on the day that she passed, I received a text that said, ‘She’s gone,’ from one sister. I never got to say goodbye because they were stealing from her. Nothing they can do or say will ever be forgiven.” —Anonymous, 45, Michigan

Shutterstock

Who do you trust if you can't even trust grandma?

“I came out to my grandma and made it clear that I didn’t want to be out to anyone else, so please don’t share this with anyone. She proceeded to make insinuations and jokes about it on Facebook, and when I confronted her, she said, ‘This is America and I have goddamn freedom of speech. I’ll say whatever the fuck I want.’

Slate

"This was after years of her verbal abuse of both me and my father, as she lived with us rent-free for half the year. She frequently took my car for joy rides and generally had no respect for me, but I foolishly had allowed myself to believe things were getting better and I could trust her."

"I, obviously, was wrong. She hasn’t lived with us since, all her stuff has been moved into a storage unit, and I never speak to her. She’ll never be allowed back into my life again.” —likelysam

What's the point of friends if they're not there for you

“I had just left a two-and-a-half-year abusive relationship. After a month, my friend told me that she was tired of hearing about it and had expected me to move on from it.” —Anonymous, 26, CA

Getty

The birthday was the last straw

“I came home one day from working an exhausting 16-hour shift in direct care to my husband of 10 years sitting on the couch. It wasn’t an issue that he was relaxing — he had worked as well and always unwinded on the couch afterward."

"The issue was that after 10 years in a committed relationship, he had forgotten about my birthday. I was so looking forward to a surprise at home, and I had gone the entire day working without so much as a text. I filed for divorce soon after that.” —Anonymous, 30, Connecticut

Pexels

The most difficult one to let go of

“I cut off my mother after she hid a secret from me that my daughter had to have emergency surgery — and blamed me when I got upset. She then sent me a letter telling me what a terrible daughter I have always been and what a terrible person I was."

"She used the argument that her abusive husband (my father) was the cause of my issues and not her or the continued abuse I suffered as a child and an adult at her hands. She has never been wrong about anything in her life, and everyone is wrong but her. I’m done. She’s been out of my life for four years, and I have never been more at peace or have had a better relationship with my spouse and kids.” —Anonymous, 61, OR

Getty

One sided? This friend covered at least 3 sides just for herself.

“I was best friends with someone for 15+ years. We talked every single day, and I’d always been her support system, which was mostly me seeing her through one bad decision after another — while she ignored all sound advice and common sense before complaining that nothing was going her way."

"Then she’d toddle off to make another bad decision. Rinse and repeat. Her lifestyle finally reached its peak soap-opera-worthy drama, and it took its toll on me while I was nine months pregnant. I was at risk of super dangerous labor complications, which she was aware of. But she couldn’t seem to stop messaging me constantly to remind me how bad of a friend I was being."

Shutterstock

“And of course, she was updating me with play-by-plays of her bad decisions. I eventually had to message her that I couldn’t be her sounding board and support person anymore, wished her well, and immediately blocked her. She was in the midst of typing a reply when I blocked her, which was no doubt more abuse to hurl at me. I ended up having my son two weeks early by induction, which went all kinds of sideways, and ended in emergency c-section. We’re okay now, but it was touch-and-go for me for a little while after the surgery. I wholeheartedly place blame on her for how it all went down and am just thankful that both my son and I lived through it.” —Anonymous, 34, California

You can't be someone's constant therapist. There are professionals for that.

“Throughout 17 years of friendship, she gradually began treating me as her therapist, criticizing me when I did anything besides catering to her, and completely checking out whenever I wanted to talk about my life."

"The final straw was when she invited herself to visit me for a whole week across the country while I was in the midst of one of the most stressful times in my life: applying to graduate schools. During the week she was there, she expected a full itinerary of activities, and Venmo-requested me for amounts smaller than a dollar while I didn’t ask her to pay for her parts when I covered the bill."

Shutterstock

"Here’s the best part: My apartment building had to be evacuated for mold with less than 24 hours notice during this time, and she refused to help whatsoever. She sat on her laptop as I moved every single one of my belongings out of my third-floor apartment to a different building by myself, then complained about her Etsy side gig.”

“When I (kindly) asked her to tone down the complaining about that while my life was falling apart, she yelled at me and intentionally missed her flight home the next day to try to ‘talk it out.’ I was done and told her so, so she began texting my mother to coordinate a way to surprise me so we could talk. Cutting her off was the best thing I’ve ever done for my mental health.” —Anonymous, 24, Arizonaone

Double Standards much?

“This was a person that I considered my best and oldest friend. I felt like most of our friendship had been very one-sided, where it was okay for her to do certain things, but there would be stipulations if I were to do the exact same thing."

"For example, it’s okay for her to follow her now-husband across the country because he will always be the breadwinner, but if I were to suggest such a move for my partner, she would comment that I’m ‘giving up’ and ‘not living my life.’ For her, it is a relationship compromise, but then the same wouldn’t be applied to me."

Shutterstock

"The last straw was when I went through a breakup and she wasn’t that supportive. She told me that I’ve been spending the past year moping instead of living my life, which was not true. I felt that the relationship needed to end."

"Just because you’ve known someone for so long does not mean that you need to remain friends if that person no longer serves a purpose in your life.” —Anonymous, 32, Louisiana

When your own family fails you, there's no coming back

“I was physically and emotionally abused by my biological father. I was still a minor when he got me involved with manufacturing and trafficking huge quantities of meth. I cooked meth for about three years, and around the age of 20, we would have small confrontations about stuff. Nothing ever really escalated until he started to try and blame other people for our relationship."

"We were in the car when an argument escalated, and I told him that I was done and moving away before I got out of the car. I started to walk away when he jumped out and ran around the car, looking ready to fight.” “I squared up and told him, ‘Do what the fuck you think you need to.’ He stopped, got back in the car, and left. That was the last time I spoke to him. It’s been 18 years, and I don’t regret anything. "

Getty

"Coincidentally, I also cut off my brother, who I had always looked up to and was really close with my entire life, about 13 years after my father. He was mad at me and told me, ‘You should have turned yourself in and went to prison for everything you did back then, you f—king coward.’"

"I haven’t spoken to him since. The punishment back then was 50 years for manufacturing methamphetamine, and I was a dumb-ass kid who did what his dad wanted based on ‘loyalty.’ To hell with people that don’t care about you.” —Anonymous, 38, Ohio

Sibling rivalries should end at 14

“After my father lived with me for 12 years, he developed congestive heart failure, kidney disease, and dementia. Six months prior to my father’s death, my younger brother went behind my back and had him sign a new will — leaving his entire estate to him and my brother’s daughter. It’s something that I KNOW I could never have done to him. He is an evil snake.” —Anonymous, 62, Georgia

Getty

We can't all drink the Kool aid.

“A friend of mine sold vitamins for an MLM. She never pushed them on me until her company came out with marketing materials in Spanish. I’m a Spanish speaker — who knows tons of other Spanish speakers — so she started pressuring me to join her ‘downline’ and get my friends to join me."

"I nicely and politely told her that I wasn’t interested, but she would not take no for an answer, to the point where she would make up reasons for us to meet and then pull a bait-and-switch and try to recruit me. She even pretended to field calls from other people in her downline in front of me, pretending they were telling her how fabulously they were doing because of her."

"I cut her off when the lengths she was willing to go to truly got bizarre. I honestly shouldn’t have waited as long as I did.” —Anonymous, 42, Ohio

Shutterstock

That's a clear sign to walk away forever

“I had breast cancer while caring for my mother with brain cancer. When I asked one of my siblings to take care of her while I had major surgery, I was told to reschedule it since they ‘were busy.'” —Anonymous, 43, Florida

Shutterstock