Ending A Friendship Hurts More Than A Breakup. Here’s Why

Friendship breakups don’t get the same level of attention as romantic breakups, but they can be the most heartbreaking. Ending a friendship with someone who has been incredibly close to you and vice versa, can be heart wrenching, especially if this is someone you have known for a while, or someone you have grown with. Friendships don’t just end because of betrayal. It can end because of distance, two people growing apart, differences in lifestyle and so many other factors.

Here are seven reasons why a friendship breakup hurts more than a romantic one.

1. When It Dawns On You That The Friendship Is Over

It almost feels surreal when you realize the friendship you shared with a close friend, is over. With romantic relationships, you either marry the person or you breakup and go your separate ways, right? but with friendships that seem genuine, it’s different. You expect it to last forever. No one actually expects to breakup with the person that knows all their secrets. When it comes down to ending a relationship with a partner, there’s usually a conversation that signals the official breakup, and although this also hurts, it brings forth some sort of closure, but when it comes to friendships, you never really know what to say because truthfully, no one knows how to navigate the end of a friendship. At least not the way we know how to, with romantic relationships.

2. Your Friends Are The People Who *Really* Know You

Friends are those people who have seen you at your absolute worst. They are the people you don’t form for, because they have seen you be insecure, fragile, vulnerable, you name it. If the person who knows you the most in the world, chooses to disassociate from you, it kind of takes a jab at your self esteem. And if you’re the one who chose to end the friendship, you certainly had a reason to come to that decision, and still, it doesn’t make it less painful.

3. Who Do You Talk To Afterwards?

Breakup with your partner, cool. You know that no matter what, you can lean on your friends for support.

Break up with a close friend? who do you exactly talk to afterwards? Most especially if this person was a core friend, it’s going to be hard opening up to just anyone, because let’s be honest, real friends are hard to come by. You can’t just share your entire self with just any friend. Whoever you decide to talk to afterwards, most likely it just wouldn’t be the same.

4. Your Friends Are The People You Trust With Your Secrets

If the friendship ended badly, can you still trust them with your secrets? Can you trust that even though you’re no longer friends, they will still respect you by not speaking bad about you, or tell people about your private information that you trusted them with? Tbh, there’s no guarantee, and that’s why friendship breakups suck.

5. Do You Delete Pictures Of Them?

Going through a breakup with a friend is a very.. confusing period.

When you end things with a boyfriend or a girlfriend, you usually don’t waste time deleting their pictures, videos or even their number. However with a friend, you can’t exactly bring yourself to do any of that. You’re just numb and unsure what to do.

6. Is It Okay To Cry?

It’s perfectly normal to cry and bawl your eyes out when a relationship ends, but to cry over a friendship ending? everyone likes to form hard guy like its no big deal, but it is! The bond you share with a friend is just as special as the bond you share with a partner. So, when a friendship ends, it hurts, and sometimes hurts more.

7. The Awkwardness Of Running Into An Old Friend

When a friendship ends, you start to wonder what happens next. Especially if you both run into each other, what do you exactly do?

Do you ignore them, or politely speak to them as if you don’t know all their most embarrassing secrets? So many questions.