An internet acquaintance is going through a rough break-up/divorce and I somehow took on the main role of moral support and advice provider.
Which has been mentally exhausting for me since I don't do emotions or feelings and trying to empathise or sympathise with someone takes a massively concentrated effort on my part.
That said, my situation isn't anywhere near as bad as theirs so I'm hardly going to ask them to stop coming to me for support.
It's one of those situations where the wonderful, charming, everybody loves, friendly partner is really a silver-tongued abusive shithead who can act better than any Hollywood performer.
And since everyone thinks the partner is wonderful my friend feels completely isolated. Everytime they would try to tell someone they were told that they must have 'misunderstood' or that they were being 'too sensitive'. Or the more common 'Oh, that doesn't sound like them at all. Are you sure?' Even better, when they mentioned it to their parents their mother said 'Marriage can be difficult. Are you sure you're trying hard enough?'
In the end, they finally took my constant advice and left. But because they were devoid of any real life help they had to lean pretty heavily on me for support which I'm not complaining about but it is tortuously frustrating to want to help someone who is on another continent. You can't run interference or literally put them in your car and drive them away from the situation.
Basically, I convinced them to reach out to an old friend (over the course of the relationship they lost all of their own friends except those that had become friends with their partner as well) and just take a risk on telling them everything that had/was happening and ask if they could help. The friend lives in New York (my friend lived in Arizona) and told them they could have their spare room for three months (the friend is expecting their first kid and their mother-in-law is moving in once the baby is born). The friend spoke to a friend and found out that a cousin of a friend of a friend's brother (I had to recheck the pm to make sure I got that right!) was going to be driving through Phoenix and on their way to New York and was happy to have my friend join them for the ride. They were even happy to go twin share at motels if they couldn't afford to leave.
So, my friend waited until their partner went to work before packing a stranger's car with all their belongings and leaving.
I guess reception is pretty shit because I didn't hear from them for days and was starting to really worry (and hating the fact I had no way of checking if they were okay) and I finally got a facebook pm to say they made it safely to NY.
But now they are getting a world of stupid thrown at them because 1) they ran out on their partner, 2) how could they do this to J?! 3) this is why divorce is so high in America, people just don't put enough effort into their relationships 4) did you even think about anyone else before you decided to run off to the city?
As well as having to deal with accusations of running off to be with a former lover ie the one who is about to become a parent, is happily married, and hasn't even spoken to my friend for years until they called asking for help.
How shit must your friends and family be that the only person you can turn to for help is a random internet friend in another country who you have never met, don't even know their last name or even what they look like, and, until rather recently, didn't even realise they were female.
That said, clearly they used to have decent friends ie the friend in NY. So not all people are shit. Just a lot of them.
And what's even worse is almost the exact same thing is happening with another internet friend only in this case they have immigration issues to contend with too. And until those issue are resolved they can't work so they are completely relying on the compassion of people who they originally only knew from playing mmo's with them.
I really wish there was something more practical I could do to help them.
(Edit: And I just stepped in toddler shit. Brilliant.)
This post has been edited by Loki: 23 April 2016 - 03:56 AM