Conflicted Feelings for My Friend?

[tribal steeple]

hey

you’re right about not believing in online relationships in my opinion because it really doesn’t make sense to date someone you haven’t met and gotten to know in real life

we often form close connections with those people who make us feel safe and loved and that’s probably why you might be developing feelings for your best friend

you can’t make your feelings go away, atleast not easily

the obvious way to get over those feelings is to establish strict boundaries, mental reframing and self care

for that you’d probably have to cut off all contact, remove the person from your life like social media, etc. and focus on yourself and your own goals and ambitions

but i’m guessing you obviously don’t want to do that since you cherish the relationship you have with your best friend

try keeping a journal to navigate through your emotions and it helps keeping them in check

also focus on the reality of the situation- you probably have a good reason to not want to like your best friend and remind yourself of those reasons

ask your friends to hold you accountable or physically write down your reasons for moving on

also reframe how you think about him

a lot of the time we over idealise the person we like and place them on an pedestal- the idea is to knock your best friend off the pedestal and find what’s unattractive about him

now this doesn’t necessarily mean hate him or start disliking him but remind yourself that he’s a normal person with flaws

you can start this process by reminding yourself of the reasons you need to stop liking your best friend

[tribal steeple]

i don’t think you should just throw the friendship away completely