I lost one of my bestfriends due to my lack of accountability and power over my life and treating them like nothing but my free therapist. Now that time has passed, I did a lot of work on myself, started enforcing responsible mindset and in general treating life like something that happens because of me, not for me. But still I feel this stigma of “always whining and complaining ex-best friend” inside me and feel like everybody around me is judging me based on that (we live in a small town where everybody knows everybody) and that I am purposely excluded from events etc. because of that. What should I do?
I’m so sorry you’re going through this. Small towns suck that way. I live in one too now but I’m too afraid to meet people here. Partially from my own experience of having hurt a friend and partially because I don’t trust these people to not talk about me negatively.