HELP: Toxic Friendship advice

Masonknight

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I’m a 36 y/o married gay man who has a friend who is a 38 y/o married straight man. We went to high school together and knew of each other but didn’t become friends until a few years ago when he followed me on social media.

Our friendship has been 100% virtual at the moment. We talk to each other via DMs. About a year ago, this friend started to drop subtle flirtatious hints and would comment on my selfies posted in my stories. I play along because I like the attention but it slowly escalated over time. The flirting progressed sending each other suggestive GIFs very frequently. Recently, the flirting became much more graphic and very descriptive, mostly on his end. He would tell me things like, “I’ve always wondered how it would feel to have a guy finish in my mouth” or “I will stick my tongue inside you and move in and out”. It got to a point where we started planning to meet somewhere. He knew exactly what to say to me to get me excited.

Then the DMs started to become less frequent almost to the point where I would send him a gif and he wouldn’t respond. He chalked it up to being busy and in the zone so sometimes he doesn’t respond fast. I also noticed him unliking a lot of my pictures.

I decided to just flat out tell him that I started to having feelings for him and didn’t know what to do. He told me he never wanted to get to that point and said he just wanted to have some fun. He also never has done anything with another guy before and he’s still interested in exploring that but he didn’t want to have feelings get involved. Not going to lie, it kind of hurt, even through I told him it didn’t. At the same time, I didn’t know how I should feel because I’m in a committed relationship with my husband.

Around this time, I also started to do some digging because I heard he was talking to other women in the same way. One of these women is my best friend’s sister. He liked all of her selfies, but no pictures that had friends or her kids. Likewise, she liked a lot of his stuff. I was starting to feel heartbreak like I just broke up with someone and the other person moved on.

I thought blocking him without notice would help me get over this but for some reason I couldn't get him out of my head. I tried for a few months but I finally broke down and refollowed him. He followed me back that same day and sent me a usual GIF we would send each other and started talking again like nothing happened, except not a frequent as before. At the same time, I was stalking my friend’s sister’s posts and noticed he unliked her pictures. I don’t know what that all means.

I realize this is not healthy at all but I don’t know what the hell to do. It’s almost like he has a control over me and I like the attention he gives me. It’s different and new. I’ll get mad at him to the point of blocking him again, but he’ll pop up in my DMs and knows exactly what to say to make me melt. It’s also like a fantasy situation where a straight guy is chasing the gay guy in secret. I don’t want to give it up, I want to stay friends with him but it’s also becoming too much to handle and effecting my day to day.

I hope all of this makes sense for some advice on what to do. I know it sounds like he’s a sleazeball but I don’t know what I like him like that.
 

plow

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It sounds like he may well be manipulating you. The healthiest option is to cut ties romantically. Realistically, keeping a healthy friendship would also be extremely difficult: let's not get fooled by completely unrealistic hopes...
 
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dreamer20

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I’m 36y/o married man in a committed relationship. For a few years I've had a virtual only friendship with a 38y/o married man on social media. We flirted in DMs..He's said “I’ve wondered how it would feel to have a guy finish in my mouth..He knew how to get me excited. We got to a point of planning to meet somewhere. In time the DMs became less..He chalked it up to being busy..he unliked many of my pictures. Told him I started having feelings for him..He replied he just wanted fun with another guy without any feelings involved. I was hurt & kept that fact secret. I heard he talked to others/women in the same way - so I dug into his life & found this true. I felt heartbreak like I broke up with someone.
I thought blocking him would help me get over this...I tried for a few months but I finally broke down and refollowed him... I realize this is not healthy at all...It’s almost like he has a control over me and I like the attention he gives me. I hope all of this makes sense for some advice on what to do. I know it sounds like he’s a sleazeball...

I'm not going to call your friend/Mr. 38 a sleazeball. You're both married people engaged in the same activity of flirting with others online. He clearly stated flirting is just for fun and anything further would be no strings attached sex. As flirting with Mr. 38 and his sex life caused you distress - stop communicating with him & stop digging into his sex life. Focus on your own sex life and marriage instead.
 

Magnus1998

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Dude, you're married. He's married. You're having feelings and getting all mushy about a guy who is confused about his sexuality at a point in his life when he should have had that all figured out... i.e. at lest a decade ago, and before he married his wife. Even if he were to separate from his wife tomorrow, any kind of relationship your friend would still be a mess because he'd be going through his gay adolescence at middle age. There's no way that you won't end up miserable from this. For your own good, stay far far away from it. Let him discover his gayness without you getting tangled up in all of the blowback.
 

WCNB99

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I agree with everyone above but I think if you've been trying to block him but keep going back, it's time to let someone in on the secret. I think if you tell someone in your life about what's been going on, a friend, your husband, whoever you usually go to, then they'll help to give you that perspective that this has so little value compared to your marriage and other relationships. They'll also be able to help keep you in check and on track with avoiding this guy and not talking to him. The less it's a secret, the less he's able to worm his way back in
 
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GingerAussieChub

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While I'm not married I understand the feelings you have in regards to not being able to let go. They aren't easy to dismiss, however to me it sounds like this other guy might be using you to get his nut off or just plainly trying to be in control of someone else's well-being. My suggestion would be to block them on everything you possibly can, keep it that way and perhaps have a chat with your husband and chat about any issues you might be having together.

If this guy has such a hold of you and you keep crawling back (for lack of a better term) it means things might not be 100% at home.

I could be wrong, just my 2cents, good luck with it though.
 
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23235111

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While I'm not married I understand the feelings you have in regards to not being able to let go. They aren't easy to dismiss, however to me it sounds like this other guy might be using you to get his nut off or just plainly trying to be in control of someone else's well-being. My suggestion would be to block them on everything you possibly can, keep it that way and perhaps have a chat with your husband and chat about any issues you might be having together.

If this guy has such a hold of you and you keep crawling back (for lack of a better term) it means things might not be 100% at home.

I could be wrong, just my 2cents, good luck with it though.
I have had this happen to me also. It’s so hard to X them out. No matter how hard you try and all for nothing because they come back uninvited and for nothing. It’s super frustrating.
 
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Ranxerox

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He's getting narcissistic hits from you, you are getting dopamine hits from him...

Be careful, it's gonna get messy. There are 2 other people at stake.

Get your dopamine hits elsewhere for a bit, and then you can think about this situation with a clearer head.

Roxx.
 
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23235111

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He's getting narcissistic hits from you, you are getting dopamine hits from him...

Be careful, it's gonna get messy. There are 2 other people at stake.

Get your dopamine hits elsewhere for a bit, and then you can think about this situation with a clearer head.

Roxx.
Unfortunately true. Wow… this resonated with me so much… :tired_face:
 
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yos

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What did you want to happen again? He said he would be willing to mess around nsa, but you personally want it to be more than that despite you both having spouses so did you want to him and yourself to jump ship and be a couple?
 

Ray3

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You're both in mid thirties, married and acting like teenager's. I mean this respectfully but you need to grow up.
 

Stephenmass

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You are both in relationships. He made clear if it was going to go anywhere, no strings attached. You wanted more, he wanted less in terms of a relationship you both can't really do right now anyways. Maybe he's more of a realist than you? When someone gets too attached (yourself) he backs off because he wants NSA completely. At least he was honest with you. My guess is the girl that he unliked her posts as well was too attached also. Best way to repair all this? Go back to being just friends and get it out of your head that your going to go anywhere relationship wise with this guy. There are two other people to think about, your partner and his partner. You don't want to f that up I hope and he doesn't want to either, which is why he's out front and honest with the NSA.
 
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