If you cut off your nose to spite your face, can you ever get your nose back?

I can’t think of a good example right now, so bear with me. Let’s say you do something to hurt a friend, but it also hurts you. You want to let the friend know how much you hurt, so you hurt them. You don’t really want to hurt them, but in a moment of pique, you do what you do and then it’s too late to go back.

Pride then keeps you from trying to fix it up. This is partly because pride is kind of foolish, but it is also because you believe that you made a threat, and once you do that you have to carry it through or you lose credibility forever. The other person will never take you seriously again, and loses respect for you.

Once the respect is lost, is it all over? Is there no way to fix things? I mean, I guess you could go back, but wouldn’t you always be the bitch from then on?