Send to a Friend

Mimishu1995's avatar

How can I best support my friend?

Asked by Mimishu1995 (23629points) January 4th, 2023

I have a friend who is 17 years old. Her life is a mess. She lives with a father who is dominant and abusive. He often uses verbal and sometimes physical abuse on her. He is also an alcoholic and can provoke unexpected spite when he is drunk. She used to be a straight A student but is now having problems with her grades, and it has eaten up her motivation to learn. She is adamant that she won’t continue with higher education after high school and just go straight to work as a graphic designer.

She also has a boyfriend who is the same age as her. I’ve known him for a year now and to be honest I don’t have a high opinion about him. He is really rude toward anyone who isn’t his girlfriend. When I am around him he acts like I don’t exist. And when we do interact, he is very rude and disrespectful toward me. He also doesn’t do well academically, is planning to drop out of school to work, doesn’t have any hope or ambition for the future, and seems like he only wants to do the bare minimum in life to get by. The thing is, my friend is obsessed with him. It has got to the point when she would become depressed and withdrawn when she isn’t allowed to be around him or even around him for as long as she wants to. She only has nice things to say about him. He doesn’t seem to mistreat her, but when they are together, they become so obsessed with each other that they block out everything.

In fact, the boyfriend is the most intense conflict between my friend and her father. The father doesn’t approve of the relationship, saying lies about him to get her to leave him, and even sometimes resorting to abuse. It only makes her stick closer to the boyfriend. It has been a vicious cycle: the father abuses her, she comes to the boyfriend for support, they become more obsessed with each other, the father becomes angry and abuses her.

She has been telling me all those awful things about her father abusing her, and how she is so desperate for the relationship with the boyfriend. On one hand I feel sorry for her living condition and can understand why she makes her decision. But on the other hand I just don’t think the boyfriend is a good person for her. There are just so many red flags around him. But I can’t communicate that to her because she is so obsessed with him she doesn’t want to listen to anything bad about him.

I have been there for her to listen to her and offer comforting words. I also try to help distract her even momentarily from her misery by playing games together with her. I have been trying hard to be kind to her. Am I doing enough?

Using Fluther

or

Using Email

Separate multiple emails with commas.
We’ll only use these emails for this message.