“My therapist told me that I need to surround myself with positive people and step away from the people who don’t serve me. I need time away from our friendship”. With these two sentences sent via Instagram direct message, my friendship of over a decade, was over.
I was offended by just how clinical the dumping was. It was written in response to a very heartfelt message I’d sent – one that had been incredibly difficult to send and had left me feeling quite exposed. That was in 2019, and our friendship has never recovered. Now, if we bump into each other, we’re essentially strangers and I trace it all back to that “therapy speak” message.
I’m not against therapy and I respect psychology as a discipline that helps us to understand ourselves, and others around us. But it is unfortunate that what comes with the territory, is the modern cultural rise in “therapy speak” that sometimes allows people to couch bad behaviour in lofty or academic language. Or as a way to justify mistreating people.
Shorts
My ex-friend and I met as teens, through another friend. We established our own relationship and spent three summers travelling during university – from Morocco to Montenegro, Paris to Prague. Our early adulthood holidays are some of my most cherished memories.
