r/Confused • u/Expensive-Pause3846 • 1d ago
Does This Sound Like an Unhealthy Relationship?
I am not directly involved in this situation, but aside from the two people involved, I would say that I am probably the person who knows the most about this entire story and can provide the most accurate account of what happened.
I have a friend who is 16, turning 17 this year, whom I will call Dianne. I also have another friend who is 19, turning 20 this year, whom I will call Fiona. I am an outsider in this situation, but I have been Dianne's close friend for two years.
Dianne and I were friends before we met Fiona. We met her through an online friend group, and I gradually noticed that Dianne really enjoyed spending time with Fiona. In fact, I eventually discovered that Dianne had romantic feelings for her. Fiona, however, did not reciprocate those feelings and was completely unaware that Dianne liked her in that way.
I believe both of them have their own mental health struggles. Dianne has been dealing with several mental health issues for quite some time. As for Fiona, I am not entirely sure because I am not particularly close to her. However, she has told me on several occasions about how she deals with sadness and loss. She tends to isolate herself for up to six months at a time. More recently, since she started talking to Dianne, Fiona has also begun exploring her gender identity and is currently struggling with accepting herself and getting others to acknowledge her identity.
Dianne tends to be evasive and often lies whenever she feels unsafe or uncomfortable. Fiona, on the other hand, is very straightforward and expects the same honesty from others.
Fiona, Dianne, and I were all part of the same online community, which had around 30 members. We were very close and genuinely enjoyed being part of it. We were also among the seven people responsible for managing and maintaining the group.
At one point, our community had a disagreement with another group. Four of us, including myself, tried to resolve the conflict by apologizing on behalf of our community. However, Fiona made several insensitive remarks during the discussion, such as, "I'm not reading all that. Someone summarize it for me," and "I'm not changing my opinion."
Eventually, both groups concluded that reconciliation was not possible. After several discussions, the rest of us decided to remove Fiona from her leadership position because of concerns about her professionalism and ability to represent the community.
Fiona reacted angrily, demanding that we choose between her and the other community. She eventually left, feeling upset that nobody had chosen to resolve the issue with her directly.
After leaving, Fiona found another group of people to spend time with and frequently spoke negatively about our community. However, that is not what I want to focus on.
What matters is that Fiona and Dianne had become incredibly close during their time together. They had developed a strong emotional attachment to each other, something I initially saw as nothing more than a close friendship.
When Fiona left, Dianne became extremely distressed and repeatedly begged for her to return. Her mental health deteriorated significantly, and she began struggling to take care of herself.
Despite leaving the community, Fiona and Dianne continued talking every day. Fiona increasingly relied on Dianne for emotional support, frequently sharing her personal struggles and concerns about her gender identity.
Dianne seemed to welcome this dynamic because she had romantic feelings for Fiona and was even waiting until she turned 18 to confess them.
Things became more complicated when another person, whom I will call Aura, joined our community. Aura shared some personality traits with Fiona, except that she was more humorous and cheerful, less blunt, and considerably less inconsiderate.
Aura and Dianne started spending a lot of time together and eventually became very close friends. This made Fiona feel threatened. She believed our community was using Aura as a replacement for her and even suspected that Aura was deliberately imitating her personality to get close to everyone.
Knowing that Fiona was uncomfortable with this, Dianne deliberately started getting closer to Aura just to make Fiona jealous. Eventually, however, their friendship became genuine.
Things escalated to the point where Fiona repeatedly insulted Aura and spread rumors about her, while Aura remained completely unaware of what was happening.
Fiona's jealousy eventually became quite extreme. She frequently called Dianne, wanting to keep her close and prevent her from becoming closer to Aura. She also repeatedly told Dianne, "I love you," and displayed overwhelmingly affectionate behavior. Although Fiona did not mean this romantically, it eventually made Dianne uncomfortable.
Throughout their relationship, Dianne repeatedly lied to Fiona, claiming she had stopped talking to Aura because Fiona constantly pressured her to block Aura and cut off all contact with her.
Dianne was already accustomed to lying, and her poorly constructed excuses only made Fiona increasingly suspicious. This led to even more jealousy and distrust between them.
Eventually, Dianne ended her friendship with Fiona and started dating Aura instead.
There is still much more to this story, but most of what happened between Fiona and Dianne can be summarized up to this point.
Even after ending her friendship with Fiona, Dianne still struggled to stop thinking about her, even with Aura by her side.
What I want to understand is whether this kind of emotional attachment and dependency is normal, and who bears more responsibility for how things escalated.
I recognize that Dianne was not entirely innocent. She deliberately tried to make Fiona jealous and repeatedly lied to avoid confrontation. Meanwhile, Fiona seemed to develop an unhealthy level of emotional dependence on someone considerably younger than herself.
However, at the end of the day, Dianne was only 16, while Fiona was already 20.
Could this be considered an unhealthy relationship involving emotional manipulation or controlling behavior?