Is she malingering?

[emzangelwings]

Since I was little I was best friends with this girl called Becky who was always pretty immature and attention seeking. Our general friendship seemed to be based on her moaning and coming to me with problems whilst I always provided the shoulder to cry on and rational advice.

Last July I was diagnosed with severe depression, anxiety and social anxiety and it's pretty much torn up my life. It took me quite a few months to confide in her because she isn't the most understanding of people and she wasn't very understanding at all. In fact when I told her I had depression her exact response was "I'm depressed because my boyfriend's going out with his friend's on Saturday instead of me". And she made me feel back about things such as the fact I couldn't go out on my own or go to crowded places and she pretty much hit back with "well your not the only one with problems" style responses which made me feel worse. After a while of this I had enough we ended up having a row and when I was about to give up on her she told me she'd been diagnosed with severe depression herself.

I gave her the brief of the doubt, thinking she couldn't be cruel enough to make it up seeing what i was going through. But then things didn't add up and she kept changing her story. She started being understanding all of a sudden. She'd told me she'd been diagnosed and then told me she hadn't even been to the doctors yet about it. She kept on moaning about how her mum didn't believe she had the symptoms she claimed to have and later on when I started to doubt her she told me it was her mum that had suggested from her symptoms that she might have depression. Then she started to put on facebook for everyone to see that she didn't think she had depression after all she thought she had anemia. After a while of her constantly changing her story i stopped talking to her. Then the week before my 21st, months after we stopped talking, she sent me a text out the blue saying she'd been to the doctor and he'd told her she did have depression and that she'd had blood tests and it had come back that her depression had caused her to have liver disease. Then she said she was confused because she didn't drink.

I'll admit I'd feel horrible if all this is true but how can I believe her?

[H. Franklin Layne]

Wish her well and focus on your own recovery. She is a "ME" person, and you don't need someone like that making you feel bad. I think you are better off keeping her at a distance, and getting on with what you must do to improve your situation. A real friend doesn't do what she has already done. This is a gamble you are bound to lose, and it isn't worth it right now.

[LightRibena]

I agree with Franklin. I actually had a friend at school, weirdly called Becky too, who sounds extremely similar to your friend. If she is telling you porkies I would distant myself from her and the lies, you need to focus on improving yourself and an attention seeking friend trying to 'one up' you is not going to help.

You could perhaps trying phoning her mum and asking her how Becky is doing. This way you are not questioning your friends honesty directly.