Tag: friendship advice
A troubled marriage can make for troubled friendships
QUESTION Dear Irene, I am so happy I have come across this blog and your book, Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend. It is nice to know there is a place to go for understanding and support when female friendships go awry. I, too, have a story. I met a friend [...]
My friend doesn’t trust me
It can be frustrating when a friend doesn’t trust you but the ability to trust may be deeply engrained in personality. QUESTION Dear Irene, I’m having a bit of a "fight" with me best friend. Let me first explain a bit about us. She’s a year younger than I am (27) and is bipolar, with [...]
Change Can Challenge Friendships
The negative impact of significant life changes on friendship, although challenging, can be overcome with effort. QUESTION Hi Irene, I’m 27 years old, working as a journalist, and recently ended a three-year relationship with a close male friend I has known for nine years. Now that I’m single again, I have room to make new [...]
My friend discovered I lied to her
QUESTION Hi Irene, I’m 37 years old but when I was 18, my best friend and I met this friendly guy whom we both liked, but he liked me more. He and I kept our relationship quiet for a while but at a party, my best friend saw us together. She and I didn’t speak [...]
A new beginning—but I don’t want to be alone
QUESTION Hi Irene, I’m 27 and have never had what I have felt is a real friend. I just got out of a three-year relationship with a great guy but he just wasn’t great for me at this point in my life; I was never in love with him. I have been in a few [...]
From the Friendship Forums: Balancing Friend-Time with Me-Time
On a recent post on the Friendship Forums, entitled I Don’t Have The Skill Set for This Problem, a poster wrote about how she transformed herself from being a very shy person to someone actively involved in friendships. She realized along the way, however, she had created a new problem: finding balance and creating boundaries [...]
The awkwardness of friendship after dating
QUESTION Hello Dr. Irene, I really cared a lot about someone whom I dated. After the end of our dating relationship three years ago, I was devastated. However, I was very willing to be his friend. For the last two years, I was doing all of the hard work and effort to maintain this friendship. [...]
My so-called friend
QUESTION Hi Irene, My so-called friend deleted me on Facebook because of an accidental slip-of-the-tongue. I told her I didn’t like her cousin. I thought telling the truth even though it hurts was the right thing. In addition to deleting me on Facebook, she talks about me behind my back and when I try [...]
Asking too much of a friend
QUESTION Hi Irene, I’ve recently been coming to terms with some deeply buried grief, and also struggling with self-injury problems as well. My "best friend" of 19 years has hardly been there for me and only seems to come around when he needs me. He makes it very clear that he does not care about [...]
