stan & win.

Unfortunately, anything we made would take a significant amount of time. Although this may not be time sensitive, I really would rather not risk that.

I used to have a machine that encoded one’s thoughts as I thought it would protect me from Bill at the time. Project Mentem. It was a functioning machine, but unsuccsesful for my purposes. 

Apologies, Stanley was not up for answering any questions earlier so this is not the most informed advice possible.

That is a very difficult situation, and I’m sorry you’ve found yourself in it. 

It can be very hard to notice changes in yourself, especially from an outside influence that you trust. Hopefully, one has friends that are able to tell when you’re changing in negative ways, but when those friends may be the source of that negative change... 

It is hard to admit that someone you consider a friend may actually be a harmful influence, and even if it does turn out to not be the case it is still admirable that you can take a step back to critically consider the situation and the possibility that someone close to you may not be entirely good.

All that being said, I’m sorry to say I don’t have any exact solution. Consulting with unbiased sources, outside influence from the friend would be a good start, but anyone informed on the situation is likely biased in one way or another. 

Talking with as many people as you can for different sources may be your best source for an idea of what the truth of the matter may be. After you’ve done that... the best course of action may just be in following your gut instinct to try to decipher the truth. An imperfect means to finding the truth, especially if you’re not sure about your own instincts on other people, but it may be the best option.

As for one’s own relationships with friends.

I’m sorry. I can’t speak for the entire range of unhealthy friendships. I know my own personal experience, and at that I’m not even sure I have much of a solution for a similar case.

I think one indicator can be how you feel though. If you feel you have to live up to... certain expectations with the friend that you don’t feel with your other friends. If even when you think about seeing them there’s an underlying dread before, after, or even during that you’re not... being quite right.

There’s cases of personal issues that can instill similar feelings though.

You could also try to examine your traits and behaviors or ask other people how you seem to have changed since around the time you first were with this friend without directly mentioning the friend. People that don’t know the friend and thus would not have a reason to purposefully mislead you into thinking you should cut off your connection with the friend.

Perhaps trying to examine your own behavior for a week, question your reactions and actions. If you speak negatively to someone, question your reasons behind it, and then question the explanations behind those until you come to base reasoning and if it makes sense. Consider theoretical counterarguments and see if you can come to any new conclusions about what’s behind your usual actions. If you can’t trust any outside insight into the matter, that’s the only thing I can think of that may help.

Oh, I’ll keep that in mind for next time.

// YES two in one week ermahgerd! but here’s Stan, a hot single dad, who works as a pediatrician. check out his bio here!