- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- Yesterday
moving past conflict/ forgiving myself
looking for tips / exposures / personal stories since i am not able to be in erp at the moment, I had a friendship end this year (it needed to end) after a conflict. I handled the conflict the best I could, we both had things that had hurt us, I apologized many times on my end, the other person did not. Ultimately they said they wanted to try and make things work, I said we could try even though I was hesitant, and then they circled back out of the blue and said hurtful things about our friendship and me and how they wanted to end our friendship. At the time I felt it was the right decision and was relieved, but then ocd came in. It’s now been months and despite my best efforts I ruminate on it probably once a day. I mentally review everything I said and how it could have been received, I frame myself as the villain of the situation, and my ocd keeps telling me I’m a horrible person who drives people away and it echoes the hurtful things this person said to me that I find memories to ruminate on to “prove” that it’s true. Even though at the time I tried my best to handle things maturely and compassionately, I’m so hyper aware of potentially being a bad friend in my other friendships that it’s becoming stressful. When it was happening I did reassurance seek unfortunately, but everyone I spoke to said that I was not in the wrong. You’d think that would be enough but of course my ocd doesn’t believe this. For months it’s fed into a belief that I’m not a good person and not worth being friends with because I will ultimately hurt people again. I even do the classic “if other people in my life knew what I did / how I handled this they’d dislike me too” I just want to be free from this and move past it. Any tips to stop mental review and ultimately just forgive myself? I feel like my ocd wants to punish me to keep me accountable since there was no resolution-like rumination will somehow remind me of it so I can learn from it and be better. but now the whole situation is so muddled in my brain that I don’t even know who is in the wrong or right, if I was manipulative in our conversation, if I truly am a bad friend or person, yada yada yada. I just want to forgive myself and move past it. I also just can’t stand that someone out there doesn’t like me anymore. I want to make peace with that. Lots of things ocd just can’t seem to move past, ugh! Any tips or exposures? Thanks ❤️ TLDR: a friendship ended without clear resolution and despite my best efforts to handle it at the time my ocd won’t let me let it go + is making me feel like a bad person and friend