Unbroken

Back in December 2016 I wrote a blog post called Broken, which you can find here - https://themyastheniakid.com/2016/12/15/broken/ in case you missed it.

I was writing about a friendship that had reached breaking point. Although by the time the piece was written, we had discussed the situation and apologies had been made and accepted, I wasn’t sure if I could let the anger go and be able to move forward, to be honest at that point I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to. We had talked but all it had done was make me angrier, probably because I had kept quiet for so long that I was now truly having to deal with all those suppressed feelings. I knew for our relationship to continue I had to deal with that anger and effectively let it go. If I didn’t there would be no future in our friendship because I would be forever looking backwards and not forwards. In working through that anger, I became more sympathetic and understanding of the whys and hows this had all come about. I had to shoulder some of the blame for the situation because I had been blinded by my own anger, I couldn’t see the person before me was desperately unhappy and broken.

It took time (I know we are coming to the end of March so it hasn’t been masses of time) but my friend and I are back to where we were before this hiatus. When I wrote the first piece I didn’t know if we would ever get back to where we were. However we are back and actually better than we have been in years. All it took was an honest conversation, one that so many people shy away from and act emotionally rather than rationally. This means looking at the good, which was 98% of the time in 20 years and understanding that 2% was out of character and down to a horrendous amount of personal tragedy.

I am not saying every relationship can be saved, nor am I some sort of tree hugging hippy. There are times in our lives when you have to say for the sake of your own mental health enough is enough. Sometimes people cross a line, their words or actions can’t be forgiven let alone forgotten.

Toxic, unhealthy relationships should be terminated at the earliest possibility. Far too many of us give abusers (because that is what they are, they abuse our friendship, our trust, our dignity) excuse after excuse for their behaviour, we take on the blame (and possibly shame) that should be squarely planted at their door because we are people pleasers. People like that though are never pleased by your actions they will always find fault, they are emotional vampires, sucking you dry and tossing you aside when you are no longer any use to them or they have begun to suspect that you are starting to see them for what they are. That was never the issue in my friendship but I have had other relationships where this has been the case.

So not all relationships can be mended and I am not pretending that they can. Sometimes it is far healthier to just call it quits, sometimes people outgrow each other or want different things from life. I realised that this wasn’t the case with my friendship, yes I had been hurt but I had to take a long hard look at the last 20 years and ask did the good outweigh the bad? Once I had accepted that there was more good associated with this friendship and this person was one of the few that had stuck by me since getting sick, the anger started to dissipate. I won’t lie the first couple of meetings after our discussion were a little awkward, we both felt it and openly talked about it. We looked at ways that it could be made less awkward, we discussed that it was probably the need for time to pass and the need for more regular meet ups that would solve this. The whole point was that we came at the solution together so we knew that the relationship meant a great deal to both of us, it didn’t feel like one person was doing more than the other, which can lead to resentment.

I am no longer angry about the things that happened before and I am not holding onto any grudges. I have let all of that go, it was a natural process not something that was forced. When we started talking more honestly and openly things improved rapidly. It wasn’t easy for my friend either, there were times when they needed reassurance. They needed to hear from me that things were back to normal, I couldn’t expect them to read my mind, it had to be said out loud, so they knew what I was thinking and feeling.The words need to be spoken and assumptions not made. We are back to enjoying each other’s company and there is no anxiety for me anymore as there had been previously.

I have learnt a great deal from this experience, I have never previously bothered mending a friendship that I believed was broken beyond repair. Before I would have just cut this person out of my life without a backwards glance. This has shown me that some relationships are worth working on and saving, rather than taking the easy option and avoiding confrontation. I know now that I should have spoken up sooner rather than let things fester. By failing to communicate I was as much to blame for the friendship floundering. I now know that it is far better to voice concerns than hold onto them. There will be bumps in the road, there always are in life but it’s how we address those bumps that matter the most.

We have come a long way since my blog post in December last year but things have definitely moved from broken to unbroken and more beautiful than before.