How to cope when a friend yells at you?
So I have a friend I've known for around 4 ish years. They are very highly stimulated by a lot of things and that applies to games as well, like valorant. When a teammate does something bad, they usually would yell at them or insult them a little in our voice call, while not saying it in the actual game vc. When they get fustrated with the people in our friend group usually, they will sigh and explain what we did wrong and how we can improve. They know I'm very emotionally sensitive, so they try to say things calmly.
But today, when we were playing competitive, we won the round, and there was only a few seconds until the next round was about to start, and I didn't move my character cause my microphone suddenly fell from the mic stand, so I was trying to fix it. and my friend yelled "GET OUT OF THE *** WAY, WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE, I'M TRYING TO GET THROUGH THE ALLEYWAY!!" in my mind, I was like we won this round already, all the enemy players are dead already, there's only a few seconds until the next round starts, why are you yelling when everything is fine??
So I told them my mic fell from my stand and i was trying to fix it since we already won the round and there was only a couple seconds until the next round starts, so i was using that time to quickly fix my microphone and they said "nevermind." and gave a big sigh and i explained it again a few second as we're getting ready before the next round started and they raised their voice and said "NEVERMIND!"
After that happened, I completely shut down and dissociated completely, since in my childhood, I had a lot of trauma of my parents yelling and verbally abusing me, and it basically just flipped that switch up again and I froze, the entire rest of the call. a few games later they noticed i was very quiet and asked if I'm doing alright and said "is pookie is doing okay?" and the friend tried to include me again and say endearing things, and I said "yea, Im doing okay :D " but obvisouly I wasn't, but I don't want to cause more problems for them, so I just kept faking it when they asked me if I'm doing alright.
I know this friend is also going through a rough time from school, family issues, and also some medical issues physically that might affect their current passion as a pianist, so I just thought it makes sense why they're so stressed and it kinda carried into the game, so the littliest emotion can make them lash out at others.
I'm already stressed out from my current schoolwork, internship, and volunteering, and also trying to start up a plant yard sale, and recently I've been focusing a lot and hyperfocused too much on my passion in farming I haven't talked to my friend group for an entire month, so I decided to do my assignments earlier so I can squeeze some time to spend time with them, since they miss me and said I haven't been spending time with them, so i wanted to make an extra effort to put my break time as my free time to spend time with them.
and just when I came back, this happens and idk anymore. I feel I need a week away from them. They are still good friends, but I feel I'm going to not talk to them for another month and just hyperfocus on school again. I was stressed enough already and wanted to spend time with friends again, but after tonight, idk if i can handle this when life is already stressful enough. and next month is christmas, and im complentating if I should still send them christmas presents. Like in our friend group, we all understand each of us are stressed and going through something, but I won't project my anger and lash out onto friends even if I'm dealing with my own stress; we can talk things out calmly, there's no need to yell.
@rinniechan
I'm sorry it triggered something.
And brought back painful memories.
I'm sorry your parents yelled and verbally abused you.
You didn't deserve that.
I think your friend definitely has a different style of communicating and yes, we don't need to yell, but during these games, people lose the run of themselves .
I think they were genuinely sorry as they reached out straight away.
It's important you just limit things until you feel better.
Sometimes things come back and affect us and it's harder to see that and we might unduly lay it on the wrong people.
You deserve some space and time to just relax 💜💕

@Amanda84
thank you so much for the reassurance ;_; I'm definitely to take some space away from the friend a bit. I thought maybe sleeping it off I might be better when I woke up today, but I still feel hurt and still remember what happened last night very clearly. It proves to me its effecting me a lot since I still can remember it extremely clearly even after sleeping and I think I even dreamt last night of the same situation happening again in my dream. In all honesty, I'm kinda scared to talk to them and I don't even know how to approach them after that. I know the things people say in game they don't mean it, but its hard ecspecially when I get yelled at and then get dismissed even when I tried to explain to them over two times. I was honestly trying so hard not to break down or cry, because I was guinenly terrified cause it felt like I just went back to a time when my parents yelled some nasty words at me in my childhood.
@rinniechan
My pleasure 💜
i used to rage at valorant, i have become better. we can talk if you want
i used to rage at valorant, i have become better. we can talk if you want
@rinniechanIt sounds like tonight was really overwhelming for you. You were already carrying a lot of stress from school, your internship, volunteering, and your own passions, and then this situation with your friend triggered old trauma. It makes sense that you shut down and dissociated when they yelled, especially given your past experiences.
You also seem really aware of their stress and challenges, which shows a lot of empathy, but it’s okay to acknowledge that their behavior affected you deeply. Wanting some time away to focus on yourself and recover is completely understandable. You are allowed to protect your mental health while still caring about your friends.
@Priyapjw1
Thank you so much for this ;_; I feel extremely heard from your response ;w; and yea life is already stressful from all the things I'm doing currently because I'm trying to reach my passion and my dreams, so I'm extremely busy, and just when I wanted to spend some time with friends just to cool down from life a bit, they went a bit too overboard and I just compeltely shut down and feel in order to protect this friendship and my own sanity I need some time for myself to protect my own mental state and also to protect this friendship in case I say anything hurtful because I'm hurting since I'm like in a flight or fight state in my mind currently.
Thank you so much for hearing me out, I really needed some reassurance and validation ecspecially when I'm not in the right spot mentally in times like these ;_;