I am posting this on a throwaway as I do not want this to be connected to my main account.
When I had just turned 17, I became friends with a 19 turning 20 year old. I never thought it could possibly become weird. We are only two years apart in age, what could go south?
Apparently a lot! I have a natural tendency to care for others, and very quickly, I learned a lot more about this man than the average person should know about someone they only recently became friends with. All of his past trauma was immediately dumped upon me. Of course, I care a lot about others, and I aspire to be a psychologist someday, so I was placed in the role of his therapist. It was here where our relationship was purely transactional, I provided the care that his parents never did and he gave me… nothing. He just made me feel less lonely, I guess.
Now, the part that it gets weird. He started opening up to me about his masturbation habits, how he would roleplay sexual scenarios with AI bots, and repeatedly vented about how he hates being hypersexual. He would often ask me sexual questions about myself, to which I would respond, feeling as if I was obligated to answer. Every day I was friends with him was horrible.
I recently made the decision to unfriend him, and boy… have I never felt so free in my life. I am still taking a huge toll, because this is someone I’ve dedicated almost 2 years of my life to! I’ll be turning the age he was when this first started in July, and I can’t even imagine talking to a 17 year old that way. It was so difficult to do this step. I felt so attached to him, and like my life would be a void without him because he talked to me in ways no one else talked to me. Now I realize… it was all gross.
Back to the title, how do I fully cope? I have left social media for the time being and have informed my boss I will not be coming into work tomorrow to process everything.
Thanks for any and all advice 💜