My Anarchist “Friend”
TW - Self-harm, someone in crisis
I have this friend, a guy who’s a Satanist, and he’s VERY angry with the world. I don’t remember all the details, but he’s been hurt and abused, gotten into fights, been to jail, etc. He’s very proud of his anger and his rebellion and his anarchy. He revealed to me that he has voices in his head. He cuts himself, laughs about it. He insults me and makes fun of me. One night I was terrified because I thought he’d taken his own life.
I don’t want to leave him feeling more alone than he already does, but I’ve been thinking about blocking him. All he does is bring me down, scare me, hurt me, insult me. Idk… Maybe I care too much. Maybe I’m not upholding my boundaries like I should.
What do you guys think?
@jesusredeemedme2425 My younger self would have tried to stick it out and be a friend. My recovered mature self says "Run!" A long time friend for the past 34 years didn't adapt well to some big changes in life around 7 years ago. Then last spring he lost everything and was living out of his car. A couple times a week I'd feed him, let him use my facilities to clean up, do laundry, get out of the heat. I told him "ya gotta get some help" and he would admit something was wrong with himself but then would go on a tirade against the mental health industry and big pharma, then he would start taking personal jabs at me, my life choices, my wife, my daughters, my beliefs. Like you I let it slide until one day I'd had enough of the abuse and told him "I know you are going through a hard time, I'm doing my best to help you and meet you half way but if you keep taking jabs at me in my house I'm gonna ask you to leave and not come back." That was almost a year ago and no contact. One of those choices you come back to and ask yourself if you did the right thing. Then I remembered it wasn't just my choice but his as well.