This Is A Rude Way To End A Friendship. But A Lot Of Us Do It Anyway.

"As someone who's been through a ton of friend breakups, I can tell you that the pain never really goes away. Certain platonic relationships have a special level of intimacy that usually can't be matched by a romantic partner. I mean, I still mourn ex-friendships from 15 years ago. Ex-boyfriends? Hardly. That's weird, right? Not at all, according to relationship experts."

""Breaking up with a friend can feel more complicated than ending a romantic relationship because we don't have the same cultural scripts or language for it," said licensed marriage and family therapist Saba Harouni Lurie , the owner and founder of Take Root Therapy. "With romantic relationships, we understand that sometimes people aren't compatible or that feelings change, but with friendships, there's often an expectation that they should last forever or only end due to major betrayals.""

""'Ghosting' - as we understand it in 2025 - has increased in frequency over the past decades, likely due to the integration of social apps into everyday life and shifts in communication norms," said Morgan Cope , assistant professor of psychology at Centre College and an expert on interpersonal relationships. "Around 13% of people report having ghosted someone in the past, and 23% report""

Friendship breakups can hurt as much as or more than romantic breakups and can persist emotionally for many years. Certain platonic relationships develop levels of intimacy that often cannot be matched by romantic partners. Some friendships can feel deeper than blood family, especially when individuals are not close to their biological relatives. Ending friendships can feel more complicated than ending romantic relationships because there are no clear cultural scripts or language for such endings. Ghosting has increased with the integration of social apps and shifting communication norms. Around 13% of people report having ghosted someone in the past.

Read at HuffPost