Am I the asshole for cutting off my best friend over her criticisms of my life?
Hi, I just wanna say first and foremost that I absolutely love the podcast. And that I use a lot of your advice you’ve given to better my own life and my relationship relationships and friendships which is why I’m writing in today.
Am I the asshole for I 20 female cutting off my friend 19 female over her criticisms about my life?
I’ll start with some background. I used to be a stripper and I have faced a lot of abuse in my life at the hands of my sexual partners and my ex ex-husband. My best friend is aware of. And I have been friends with her since the second grade. At the time, I couldn’t always tell her about the abuse that I was experiencing because a lot of it was sexual slavery and very traumatic for me. And I see a therapist and I have gotten my life on track. I work two different jobs and I am back in school for my college degree. And I am a former teacher.
Over the years, she has become significantly more religious and uses the Bible to really color, her life and the people in her life, and I am catholic which she has never expressed being an issue to me, but her family was less accepting of my religious preferences she also has not had as much life experience in the same way I have because I grew up very poor, whereas she grew up in the suburbs with a lot of privilege. And she was a homeschooled Christian, as she was pulled out of school after the seventh grade. I also have bipolar and complex posttraumatic stress disorder. And on top of both of those, I am on the autism spectrum. Whereas she is a CNA and believes that homeopathic medicine can solve a lot of my issues.
Back in March, I had decided to become a stripper as my second job whereas I was teaching, and I needed some extra money to pay my bills and to pay for a court case against my ex-husband for domestic violence. And I was really lacking on money and so was she. So we weren’t able to hang out as much or so I thought. Turns out the whole time she hadn’t wanted to hang out with me is because she saw that due to my job I could no longer be a good Christian. And she had a three hour phone call with Me explaining this. In this phone call, I cried a lot because I felt like her, and some of our other friends had ganged up on me, and she said that the reason I felt that way was because of my autism. And I am very visibly autistic so I assume that’s correct?
And in June, she had continued to refuse to see me so I reached out for the last time and said that if anything had happened, I wanted to make it right between us. And she inevitably got very angry with me and refused to speak to me for a little bit. And I told her that when she did choose to speak to me, if it was going to be an attack on my morals, my value or my life and the things that I’ve experienced that I was no longer going to be in her life . And when she finally did, she sent 14 numbered paragraphs of criticisms about my life and my personality. Which goes in order
- I’m socially awkward and talk over people. And that my visible autism makes her and a lot of other people uncomfortable.
- When I try to relate with someone, it seems like I make the conversation all about me.
- I’m a hypocrite for being anti-war and having currently dated an army combat vet.
- I have memory gaps due to extreme trauma from sex slavery so I’m unable to recount parts of my trauma therefore, I must be lying.
- I am a former stripper and she doesn’t believe that I am changed in my ways and she also believes that I am a danger to children because of my job and therefore should never work in education again.
- She believes that I am promiscuous and must be cheating on my boyfriend due to having a high body count from when I was younger.
- That I’m a pick me and crave validation. Which she says is because I am different around men which is due to my PTSD.
- I like male validation. And because she believes I like male validation, I must be trying to sleep with her fiancé and his friends.
- I don’t do enough worship, and therefore will not have a future husband, like she will because of how I choose to worship.
- I am mentally ill and she thinks that I use my disability as a crutch because I don’t understand things or struggle.
11-13 is essentially telling me that she believes due to my job. I am a drug addict and caused all of my issues that I have faced. - Because I have been abused by my ex-husband and was sold into sex slavery as a young teenager. I must enjoy being abused, especially sexually.
After this, I told her that I do not wish it will on her and then I understand if she sees me as a bad person because I do unfortunately see myself as a bad person and I would understand if she no longer wanted me in her life, and I also explained that I did not want to be criticized in this way as I have stated multiple times during before and after this conversation. And she essentially kept texting me reiterating the same things so I told her that I know God has a plan for her and that I hope she would forgive me as Jesus forgives. And I told her that she can eat, but not at my table and that I no longer wish to be her friend.
And since then, I have gotten messages from people we both know as she has talked to them, telling them all of these things. And I feel like a lot of her criticisms of my character and as a Christian are valid and I feel like I should listen to her on these things. And I being developmentally disabled, sometimes do things without knowing and I wonder if right now is one of those times.
And I just worry, I overreacted and didn’t listen enough to her words. And I would like to take any advice.
Posted Jun 30, 2026, 2:44 AM UTC