Alright, I can help you out with this one, but be openminded about it. There's gonna be some shit in here you won't want to hear or whatever, but bear with me.
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Originally Posted by James
I have a friend, who I've met not too long ago. She's an incredibly nice and sweet person. She's from L.A., but she's in the Philippines right now. Her father's a pretty powerful figure there, and they had to go spend a few months there for business-related issues.
She's with a boyfriend who, to put it bluntly, does not love her.
He lives in Norway. She loves him, and is horribly devoted to him and trying sickeningly hard to get his love again.
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Well, first of all, it doesn't even seem like she really does love him, just the idea of being in love, and he's the closest, or most available target in her eyes.
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When I first started talking to her, she had recently been "taken back" by him, on the condition that she wasn't allowed to get mad.
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That should've set off red flags right there. Did you tell her to call bullshit on this one?
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Then more recently, he showed up for two weeks, had sex with her, sumped her, asked if he could fuck another girl, then "took her back" again. He tears her apart and then collects what's left of her to mold into whatever he sees fit. I want to kill him.
She's very depressed. Very very depressed, more than me. She talks about how she wants to die, and how much her boyfriend affects her life, and how worthless she feels, and so on.
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How often do you talk? How deeply do you talk? Even if just on a friendly level, are you being vocal enough about your feelings to her? I don't want to say "be pushy", but it appears to me that she's starved for affection, romance, to be needed, etc. It sounds like you're attempting to provide it in some capacity, but you don't tell me enough (or I haven't read your post far down enough yet). Are you being specific when you talk about how you feel to her? What exactly are you telling her or trying to tell her?
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She started seeing a psychologist, who just seems to recommend religion-heavy self-help books for her to buy, rather than actually help her. Needless to say, I worry myself sick that something's going to happen to her. I had her promise me she wasn't going to hurt herself.
She keeps everything bottles up. If something's wrong, she tries to ignore it, and put on a happy face for everything. I try to get her to talk to me, and she wants to change the subject.
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So take charge. Change it back. Running away from the problem ain't gonna make it easier for her to deal with it. I'm not saying FORCE her to confront it, but let her KNOW something's wrong and before she can change the subject, let it be more than known that you are willing to listen and will do anything you can to offer her some help.
I can't say exactly without basically reading your conversations with her, but are you as bold with her as you read here? Do you talk to her as matter of factly? Most importantly, are you LETTING HER KNOW that she has YOU available to fall back on? From what I gather, you do spend a lot of time online, you can use that to your advantage. If she has some big problem, you can be around to talk to her and help guide her through it, if you can get her to stay on subject. You have to take charge here. I'm not saying you aren't, but you don't give me enough information to assume otherwise.
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I reluctantly agree. It kills me to see her bottle everything up, because I can see how much she's hurting when I read her website.
Today, I read an obscure comment about her possibly leaving everything forever is she's "successful." I pestered her about it, but she had to go to class. I continued to worry, up until I fell asleep for about 2 hours and woke up in a cold sweat. I see she's online, and I pry. I beg her to talk to me. I tell her I'm her friend, and I care about her too much to keep changing the subject, no matter how much she doesn't want to talk. I tell her that I want to help her, I want to know what's wrong, and I want her to get her feelings out there instead of waiting for all the bottled up shit to explode.
And that's when she tells me she tried to kill herself two days ago. Part of the reason being that she feels that if she kills herself, her boyfriend may love her again.
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Part of me wants to scream right here. There's so much that could be in the background right there that it's frustrating.
Maybe she DOES like you, but feels that she needs to get YOUR attention in an extreme way.
Maybe you are right, and she feels that dying will cause her boyfriend to love her again. In this case, it is your DUTY to speak up about it and say "Bullshit. Look how he treats you now? What makes you think he won't be just as big a dick in death as in life?"
You need to make it clear that YOU would miss her a lot, if you are close as friends as you say, that her absence would depress YOU, that YOU love having her around, that she's important to YOU.
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But that's not the only reason. There's so much more going on with her, so it's NOT just boyfriend stuff. But it seems to be a big part.
She's halfway across the world, and all I have for communication with her is AIM. She tried calling me, but my number is considered out of service by her phone. I can't call her, because the charges would be too high. She won't be back in the US until January/February, and that's if she manages to stay alive until then. I'm helpless here. I'd do anything to help her, and to prevent her from doing this again. But I don't know what to do.
No bullshit. No humor. Just help. Please, just help.
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Take charge, dude. I hate to say it, but lay it on THICK. Don't FORCE her, but try your hardest to stay on subject. Guide her through it, reinforcing it every step of the way with your feelings for her.
Look, dude, she reads like she needs to be loved. She's only fooled into thinking she loves this guy in Norway, she wants love and since he's given it to her before, even briefly, she feels it's his to have.
YOU need to step in and say "Bullshit. You can love me. I care for you. I listen to you. I worry about you. I don't want you to do anything to hurt yourself, because I will miss you. It's selfish to say "Stay here for me", but isn't it also selfish to kill yourself just so one guy will care, even for a few moments?"
I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but from the whole post you made, it reads like you're helping her out but not telling her how you feel about her, whether you like her or love her or whatever, and that's what you NEED to do because that's what's most important.
If I'm right about that, she sees you as just some other guy trying to give her advice.
Whereas, if you do make your feelings PLAINLY known (beating around the bush won't work in this case) and pepper your entire conversation about this subject with her, it won't catch on immediately but she WILL notice. After awhile, she might start feeling like she is important to YOU, and that might be what matters most to her.
I'm sorry if none of this helps, but I did try. Good luck.