When people talk about trust issues, they are most likely talking about those stemming from romantic or family relationships.
They're common causes so it's not surprising that most people dealing with trust issues identify those relationships as the source.
What a lot of people fail to acknowledge, though, are trust issues coming from friendships — which, by the way, are totally valid.
During the course of most people's lives, they will have some type of relationship where the other person is emotionally abusive to some degree. It might not always be constant gaslighting and demeaning, but it won't be healthy.
These unhealthy relationships can often be friendships, and every negative effect from these friendships is still genuine.
Friendships are tough because they require a lot of trust and emotion to develop further, and the more you put in, the more vulnerable you get. This vulnerability can make abusive friendships sting even more as it's easy to blame oneself for their willingness to open up and sometimes ignore the red flags.
I, for one, have experienced my own share of trust issues stemming from friendships.
I've been afraid of reconnecting with people out of fear of rejection; afraid of reconnecting only to be pulled back into toxic environments; afraid of opening up and being taken advantage of by new friends; and overthinking current friendship, assuming I see red flags when I don't.
I'm afraid to trust people I once did, want to, and currently do, and my reasonings are well-founded, along with every other person's.
I don't have to sit and explain my entire life history of friendships just to seem valid to the world.
I know — and everyone else going through the same things does too — that what I feel is totally real and normal.
Friendships can have everlasting impacts on our lives and it's safe to assume it can make negative impacts as well.
We believe people who have been abused by exes and shut out by family, and we should definitely believe people who have been stuck in unhealthy friendships.
People never ask for bad relationships of any kind and they never ask for any of the bad stuff that comes after.
No one asks for emotional struggles because of their relationships, and friendships are no exception — no if, ands, or buts about it.
