I miss my friends.
This is partly my own fault and partly not. Between disagreements over previous repeated suicidal bouts, attempting to recover from such, insane work commitments over the last 12 months, intentionally shrinking my social circles to cope with the previous 2, and my just naturally overly busy schedule, I haven't had much free time. A friend asked if we could do something on a Sunday not too long ago - over a 3 month period I only had 2 dates I could offer, the soonest being 6 weeks away even still. Friends have, probably understandably, rather given up on trying to hang out with me except for special occasions like group birthdays etc.
I still have my Monday night social, which keeps me sane(ish) week and week, in so much as it acts like a stress reliever, but after 5 years of such and an ever decreasing size of the group that turn up each week my mind has partially desensitised to the effect of it - as I say, it works as a temporary stress reliever, but given its default regularity, doesn't seem to count a huge amount towards 'seeing people' anymore.
I'm supposed to be in Brussels this weekend. A replanned trip for a good friend who wanted to go to Amsterdam but I told him I could only go as far as Brussels. Clearly, we're not there. Work got in the way. Super long days, weekend work, getting home at 2am and going back to work at 7am, not eating, all of this meant I had to make the call that 6 hours of driving, half of it in a foreign country, was going to end badly, and so I cancelled the trip. It sucks. I feel horrible for cancelling on the friend who was counting on me for one of his first proper vacations in years. Everytime he tries to tease me about it I get defensive and lash out at him. I'm at work on Sunday this weekend already of course.
I was supposed to be in Thiepval this weekend. At the Somme memorial event. I won tickets. I asked my best friend if he was up for it. War services seem to be a thing we do. For someone who normally does not display the correct emotional connection during times of public grief, war services do have a connection with me, again, not so much an outward one, but inwardly they mean a great deal to me. Brussels was the replanning of this Thiepval trip when that went awry. Thiepval went awry, well because I fell out with my best friend I suppose. Which sucks.
I miss him. He fucked up pretty badly and did something pretty damning to be fair. I would like to somehow reconcile, but that's not just about me forgiving him and forgetting about it, that involves him putting in a fair amount of effort in to try and make things up or apologise to me. That effort seems to be... virtually non-existent. One in person talk that he walked away from and a handful of text messages over 6 weeks. He seems to have no interest in putting in the effort to make up with me. Which is the way things go sometimes, but it still hurts a lot, I still miss him a lot. He was a big and critical part of my life (and a very critical part of my mental health support over the past 18 months that has now vanished - at many times the curiosity of where his friendship might go over the years was the sole thing keeping me around) so finding out you're not worth making the effort for is never a nice position to be in.
I miss his husband. He's someone who doesn't say a lot, and who doesn't reveal his emotions very easily. But over the last year I've reached a point where I feel I can read him fairly well, that we have established some of our own connection. We both realise that ultimately, our friendship will always hinge on my interaction with the (ex-?)best friend, but we had definitely got to a point that there was a personal interaction between us. The messages he's sent me over the past few weeks have been heart-wrenching at times. It made me realise I don't just miss my friend; I miss both of them.
This all leaves me in a state where I'm falling very free and loose mental health wise again. I feel supremely disconnected from the world, there's no one I feel like talking to, seeing people is either a chore or they're no longer around or interested. I've wondered about reaching out to the best friend - about once again, swallowing the hurt and being friends with him because I mentally need the stability. But ignoring the problem would lead to internalised resentment down the line. Brussels friend is also seemingly very concerned about any prospect of reconciliation - partly because of the effect the whole issue and its history have had on him personally, and I also get the feeling he just doesn't think the guy is any good for me to be around, period. It's not hard to work out who each of these people are, so you'll understand why Brussels friend's severe reaction to me reaching out makes me give pause and consider whether he is in fact right and I should trust in his assessment of me far more than I trust my own.
But either way, I miss everything right now. It all gets increasingly distant every day.
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