Am I being oversensitive or is my friend toxic?
Hello, everyone. Recently, I had an argument with a friend. It started from when I was spending time with them watching a movie with political themes that I don't understand. It's very heavy with metaphors and requires a lot of time for analysis. Afterwards, they shared me the link for the analysis, and even summed it up for me, but it was just very long. I skimmed through the summary and said something abt the movie that made my friend really offended. They called me incapable of critical thinking, ignorant, and even primitive. I told them I wasn't interested in the political things, and they told me to widen my interests.
I told them that people simply have different interests with limited energy and capacity, and just because they aren't curious about everything doesn't make them uncivilized and that it isn't wrong. They said its debatable.
I kept trying to reason with them but then my other friend saw the text messages and highlighted that they were being extremely rude to me. This made me emotional, so I wrote them a long rant about how they are being disrespectful by insulting me, and that even though they claim they aren't forcing me to learn things, they still are based on how they keep insulting me for it. I also mentioned how I was tired from how they kept asking me to expand on my answers and asking for examples of how similar political themes can also be found in other things than that one movie when they could simply look it up. They replied that they were just being curious. They said I should've properly set my boundaries.
They said that they have experienced a lot of trauma and struggles that made them question the world, and they're just a humanist trying to make the world a better place, in which I'm one of the people stopping that progress. They also said those who don't learn history will repeat it etc.
Then, again, they called me ignorant and stupid. I said it's disrespectful, and that there's a way to advice someone without being rude, then they said that they thought I could handle the truth.
Afterwards, I told them I wouldn't talk to them unless they give me a sincere apology.
After rereading the text messages, I realize that I could've told them "We can agree to disagree" or "This behavior is making me uncomfortable, please stop" which would properly set boundaries. Instead, I just went off on that long rant instead of communicating boundaries. And most of the things they've called me are somewhat true. I admit I'm dumb and ignorant. I don't like learning about heavy stuff that I'm not interested in. And I do live like an NPC since they know I go through most of my life going through obligations and responsibilities instead of actually pursuing something genuine. But I'm tired, so I can't really help with that. Aside from the insults, they didn't use cuss words or verbally abuse me. They just stated my characteristics to which I already admitted to.
And about the movie, it's my fault for giving that offending remark because I didn't properly read the summary. I apologized, to which they said they appreciated. So now I'm wondering maybe I really am being too sensitive.
Am I being too sensitive?
@Diendra11 This post sounds so familiar I had deja vu reading it. I’m thinking your question is an important one to ask, but maybe it would help to reframe it a little. You had this event with your friends and different points of view on what transpired and your reaction to it. Instead of asking, “Am I right or wrong in this situation” or taking on or rejecting a label of being “to sensitive” maybe a better question to ask is, “How can I let my friends know I care about them.” If your friends know you care, then the dispute takes on a different flavor and fizzles before it becomes larger and painful for everyone, or it doesn’t become a dispute at all.
Am I too sensitive? If your friend punches you it hurts whether your friend meant to hurt or they thought they were protecting themselves or they were just goofing around. It still hurts. So you punch back in self protection. Now they are hurt. Now you’re both in a cycle and the punching might go on. Should you just learn to take their punches? That doesn’t feel fair. An alternative might be to learn jujitsu, deflect the punch and the fight is over. For some awesome relationship jujitsu see Dr. David Burns book, “Feeling Good Together.”