And while we default to criticizing the individual – whether they are a coworker, friend, or even a romantic interest – have you ever wondered if there is ever a valid excuse for their actions?
Curious to hear about the other perspective, Redditor are_we_human_ asked:
"People who have ghosted friends permanently: Why did you do it?"
When Talking Does Not Help
These people thought the individual did not need an explanation for slipping out.
Tired Conversations
"When I felt like I had to walk on eggshells around them constantly. Like it felt like no matter what I said, it was always the wrong thing. I'd be asked for my honest opinion on something and no matter how I answered it was the wrong thing. Or even if I did so much as say 'I legitimately don't have any input for this, it's out of my wheelhouse', well…wrong answer."
"It got to the point where I got tired of just feeling like no matter what I said it was wrong and I just let the conversation die and dead it has been for a year or so."
– We1tfunk
Waiting To Make A Move
"I've technically done this by going 'okay, I'm always initiating the conversation, so now I'm going to let them message me first' and then never hearing from them again."
Your Turn
"Yeah, I've done this. The whole 'ok, your turn to take the lead' thing and they never contacted me again. When you couple it with the realization that the only time they were contacting you was to ask for a favor, you realize where things really stood."
– tah4349
Detoxing
For people wanting to cut off negative relationships, ghosting was the only solution.
Distancing From Troubled Relationships
"Because I found out he was verbally abusing his child and physically abusing his wife. Tried to do more for the wife and child but she went and denied it all when social services got involved. Sadly they are still together and he is still a drunk who hasn't changed."
"At that point I had to pull my family away from that and move on with life."
"Was my best friend since childhood and I never knew any of it all that time. 🤦♂️"
No Time For Fake Drama
"She kept lying to me. Really stupid small and mainly harmless lies - concerts she'd gone to, how many times she took her driving test, people she's dated. It's like she would forget that we'd been besties since we were 14 and were now in our 20's so I knew who she'd dated, concerts and driving test etc."
"She tried to get back in touch 5yrs later, messaging my sister and other school friends on FB saying she had desperately been trying to get in touch with me. She hadn't. I still lived in the same house, had the same mobile number and email etc"
"Eventually I got in touch with her and asked her to meet for coffee. Although it was lovely to see her and I genuinely missed her as we had some of the best times of our young lives together it became clear pretty quickly that she was still a liar but they had got bigger. Now she was saying her sister had attempted suicide and her daughter was nearly killed by a bus. I got really angry at her for telling such sh**ty lies like this which she tried to deny she was until I started asking her for details of when, where and how these things happened and she stumbled."
"I walked away and haven't heard from her since and I'm relieved. I don't need fake drama."
Too Many Lies
"Impulsive liars. I had close to the same situation. I wish I would've understood the thought processes and all that, the lying really gets old."
– lil_gusi
Being Used
"I learned I was just a friend of convenience. Nobody wanted me around unless I was a free atm, free tank of gas, or a free ear to b*tch to. Even though they did the bare minimum to act like they cared, my problems were my own. Yet I always had to be available for their weekly/monthly breakdowns about the most avoidable shit, like, saving money to pay a bill. Then it turns into b*tching about something we have planned they can no longer go to, being completely unsubtle that they expect me to offer to foot the bill. Or my personal fav, lying to me about having the money to go do said thing, and then at the last minute, declare they had some unexpected expense to take care of and are now broke, throwing expectant looks my way. But disagree, or get angry, or GOD FORBID say no to something, and it's years of silence. Finally, one day I just decided to keep it that way. Been silent ever since. Why care about ghosting someone when you were never really friends in the first place? Easiest decision ever."
Inconvenient Friendship
"She literally described my friendship as a burden. She said that she spent a lot of her time 'attending to' my messages and hang out time. An email or text message once or twice a week, and maybe a hang out session once a month is a burden? She then told me that I needed to 'think of a way to fix' our friendship."
"If my attention is a burden, then what exactly should I be doing? What does our friendship consist of if I cannot message you or hang out with you without being made to feel guilty about it? Why is it my responsibility to 'fix' our friendship when you're the one claiming it's broken?"
"I didn't exactly mean to ghost her...but every reply I came up with was filled with anger and hurt so I never sent it. It seems she'd be happier without me anyway."
Mean Girls
"One of the girls in my HS group was manipulative and had narcissistic traits."
"She was scheming who to be friends with to gain station and popularity, organized these sh*it talking campaigns to bully some of our classmates and make them seem ridiculous. And multiple times when we hung out she would make all these bitchy remarks at how I behaved and about the things I said. Not even backhandedly, though I think she was aiming to be subtle, and just sucked at it."
"It was ridiculously, the final nail on the coffin was when I was hanging out with a good friend of ours, my sister and this girl. And the whole night she makes these annoying comments at my behavior and interests. Once I finally told her that this is enough, and she needs to stop, she blamed me for flipping over a single small comment, while OBVIOUSLY my sister and one of my best friends had very clearly seen that she was using all my insecurities against me the whole night and that I did not in fact loose it over a single comment."
"Some of my friends still liked her and excused her behavior, so i simply stopped inviting her to places, talking to her and when invited somewhere together, avoided talking to her. After high school ended we didn't talk for years untill she recently sent a message apologizing."
The Antisemitic
"Dude I was friends with for a few years, one day out of seemingly nowhere he started spewing a bunch of anti-jew crap on facebook, essentially blaming the jews for any and every inconvenience or negative experience he or the world experiences. I unfriended him and never attempted contact again."
Too Clingy
People who felt their energy was being sucked away did what they had to do.
Not A Therapist
"He tried to cling to me as if his mental health was my responsibility. He really just couldn't comprehend the fact that having a friend is not the same as talking to a therapist."
Other Perpsective
"I was this friend and I didn't even realise it til she (thankfully only temporarily) ghosted me! I drove her crazy and when she tried to ghost me I was relentless in trying to find out why. She tried to tell me but for some reason it wouldn't get through to me til she just completely removed me from her life. After about 3 months of isolation from [the virus] it clicked and I felt terrible. Dropped her a huge apology and got help. She was so patient and understanding with me and I'm forever grateful for that."
When It Takes Too Much Work
"I found that the friendship was draining all of my energy. Every conversation was negative, she had a victim mentality and a lot of issues that she created herself and refused to address. It became a chore to even talk to her. I know it sounds awful but it's the truth."
More Than Friends
"She weirded me out one too many times trying to be more than friends, and she drank a LOT."
"I moved out of town and didn't tell her. She went so far as to try intimidating my mother to get my address, but Mom knew who she was and why I didn't tell her so she didn't budge."
"This was about 1990. A couple years ago she messaged me on Facebook trying to break the ice with a question about a band I really liked when I knew her. I deleted it and blocked her and it's been quiet since then."
Episode 1 Namaste GIF by Will & GraceGiphyFor many of these Redditors, avoiding confrontation was a better alternative to getting into a verbal – maybe even physical – altercation.
Ghosting is typical in the world of dating where a person sends a message and receives nothing but the silent treatment, but it also seems to be a common occurrence among platonic friendships.
If the goal is to avoid hurting someone's feelings, is ignoring the individual and not dignifying their concerns with some sort of acknowledgement an appropriate response?
Hello? Why are you not responding?
"I should've thanked Paul Bunyon"
One of my most vivid wake up memories was after a long day of work, the gym, auditions and then an impromptu night out with friends. I left the bar at 330 am in Midtown Manhattan and got on the "A" train to Inwood (the top of the island). From what I remember I must've dozed off right after the train passed Central Park and went rolling into Harlem. When next I awoke the train was stationery at 207th street. As I was rising from my slumber I noticed I wasn't as uncomfortable as I had been in the past, when falling asleep on those hard plastic train seats.
When I finally opened my eyes, I was nestled with care on a strapping (and also intoxicated) gentlemen who could've been the Brawny guy. (Plaid, flannel shirt and all) I looked around, just us. I quietly untangled myself from him like a hidden lover running before the wife comes home. I stood, checked for all my belongings and left. I told the conductor to wake him and then headed home. I should've thanked Paul Bunyon. He was sweet... alas.
Lost
Music Video Atm Miami Nights GIF by atmGiphyI know a guy who went home with a stranger. Went pee in the middle of the night naked. Went back to bed. Woke up to screaming. He had gone back to the wrong room and was naked in her mother's bed.
It's Me
Not exactly the answer to the question, but my dad told me something scary after his stroke. Because he couldn't feel one side of his body, he would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and think a stranger had broken in and was laying next to him. He would have to calm down and remember that he'd had a major stroke and didn't immediately realize that the person he thought was laying next to him was he himself.
Years Later
Was in college, went out too hard on a Thursday night because I had no class the next day. Woke up in my own room to a girl standing there getting dressed. I was dumbfounded, she super casually put on her jacket, said "I have to get to class" and left before I could even get a word out.
I NEVER saw her again. Tried to ask friends who I came home with, everyone said I just disappeared. Her face is burned into my mind and now, 5 years later, I have no clue what happened or who I spent the night with.
No Good Deed
Jump Stepping GIF by Bayerischer RundfunkGiphyGot really drunk at a dorm party. Ended up carrying a passed out girl up to her room (3 flights of stairs, elevator was out). Plunked her in her bed, took her shoes off. Then passed out on her floor.
She woke me up by stepping on me and yelling at me. I was too hung over to argue and just left.
Love you Bro
One time at my cousin's house party I was absolutely out of social energy and went to a room to go to sleep and I woke up in the middle of the night with two of the most jacked dudes I've ever seen curled up together next to me and a unit of a bulldog sleeping in between me and the dudes.
One of the guys saw me wake up and he asked if it was cool to sleep there and I said that I didn't mind but he should let me have some of the blanket because it was freaking freezing. He said "no problem bro" and then tucked me in like some mother hen and then said "goodnight bro". Crap was the most strange/wholesome thing I've ever experienced.
"Careful"
See when a comfy bed is calling all you can do is fall prey to its clutches. Now we really need to be a bit more discerning about who is that bed with us. It's only the safe and ethical thing to do. And if we are the one's concerned about who a stranger is remember... 911!! For example...
Would you like fries with that?
Not woke up with one but came home from primary school around 11 years of age. To find a complete stranger in my bed. Being completely naive thinking he was a family friend. I made us both sandwiches to give to him, I returned to my room to find him gone. I now look back at this with complete horror. My family finds it amusing that it took me years to tell my family about it.
Kudos to Dad
Probably not what you imagined.
As a kid, I would sleep walk at night. In the morning, I would have no recollection of what happened.
I spent the night at a friends house when I was about 10, and the family had a fire going in the fireplace in their living room. My friend's mom decided to sleep on the couch to make sure the fire went out, and the dad went to sleep in the parents bedroom. Due to the door to their bedroom always being closed, I had never been inside...
...which was very, very disorienting the next morning when I awoke in said bedroom, as the dad was just waking up and getting out of his bed. He had assumed during the night I was his son, and didn't question anything when i slipped into bed with him.
Kudos to Dad for not making it anymore awkward than it already was.
And that's the story of how I awoke next to my friend's dad.
Mommy High
When I had my son, I couldn't sleep. I told my doctor I hadn't slept a full night in 13 months. Most nights I was getting only an hour or two and I couldn't sleep during the day. I'd try to nap, but I'd just stare at the ceiling.
My doctor prescribed me Ambien.
The first night I took it and went to bed. Sometime during the night, my husband brought the baby into our bed.
I woke up to find a baby covered in rainbows and tiny little gnomes.
Me: "Honey! Honey, wake up. There's a baby in our bed."
Husband: "I know. You're going to wake him up."
Me: "Do his parents know he's here?"
Husband: "His dad does. Go to sleep."
Be Safe
Was a female in my mid 20's and fell asleep in a 60+ man's hotel bed after a night of drinking in restaurant across from said hotel. What could have been a recipe for disaster turned into him saying 'if I ever had a daughter I hope she'd be just like you. I called ya a cab and here's your wallet. Be safe now.'
In the chair...
Season 2 Relax GIF by FriendsGiphyAway at college. Went to a bar, met a girl.
I woke up the next morning in an on campus apartment sharing a recliner with said girl.
Neither of us lived on campus or knew who lived in the apartment we ended up at.
"Checklist"
Well at least we've all been there, or a large enough amount of us as to not feel foolish. Things to remember...
1- Get a name...
2- Get details of when, where and how...
3- KNOW WHERE ALL THE EXITS ARE!!!
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