How to deal with a friend who shuts you out

It happens all of a sudden that your friend just stops talking to you and you spend most of your time in thinking what could have possibly gone wrong. At times you may be able to find a possible reason but can’t be sure if that’s what is making your friend avoid you and at others, you just don’t know what happened. You can see your friend going through something and really want to help but he or she has just shut you out. There could be many reasons behind this kind of behaviour, either you did or said something which didn’t go down well with your friend, or it has got nothing to do with you at all. When you find yourself in such a fix, be patient and roll over these pertinent points which may help you deal with it.

Try to communicate
If your friend has stopped texting, or communicating on Twitter or Facebook or WhatsApp, it could also be because he/she is done with a certain mode of communication. People can get fed up with and burned down on social media and technology and just want to take a break. Try a different method of communication and don’t jump to a conclusion before actually finding out something more substantial.

Did something go wrong?
How much ever we refuse to acknowledge, but deep within we always know if there’s an underlying current of tension in the friendship and if you are the reason. Your friend may have been upset with you for a while because of something you said or did. Not everyone shouts when he/she is upset or angry. There are people who would calmly tell you if you did something wrong and if you don’t pay much heed to their complaints and keep on repeating your mistakes, they may just shut give up on you and shut you out completely. While you may be aware of your faults at times, you may be clueless if you did anything wrong. And there are just two reasons behind it, either you genuinely don’t know or you lack the ability to self-reflect. If you really believe that there are no issues with you, then something is wrong with your friend or he/she is going through a rough phase.

Are you the only one?
This is the easiest way to figure out if you are the reason why your friend is not talking to you. Find out if you are the only one who has been shut out or the behaviour is common for all the people around you and your friend. If it’s only with you that he or she is not talking, then you are left with no doubts. Here you need to act honestly and apologise if you know you have done something which you shouldn’t have. And if you truly feel it’s not your fault and your friend is acting unreasonable, give him/her sometime. If you really value your friendship, let the person know that you will be there if at some point, he or she would like to talk.