I haven’t been able to tell anyone since we’ve been friends since 7th grade and we’re in our 30s now (and we’re from a small town where it seems like we all genuinely like each other).

I felt our friendship shift over the years, especially when I became a therapist, and which worsened over the past couple months. I feel like he used my profession to his advantage. It stopped feeling like a friendship and I was an emotional dumping ground after dealing with patients all day. I got to a point where I couldn’t handle it anymore on top of my work stress and told him how I felt. He never responded and now has deleted me off all social media.

I have so much free time and decompression time when I get home now, it feels blissful.