Ask Lemmy

People in those situations need to know they aren't forgotten by their friends as much as they need time and space to sort themselves out. It's hard to say what's appropriate. Trust your own judgment m

Send them a text and tell them you're thinking about them. If they ask for help and you can help them then by all means help them.

This advice is from a self isolating man that needs help.

A gentle reminder that you know about them and are available but putting no pressure on them would probably help them. Unsure if it will cause them to open up more, but if your goal is making sure they are ok, I don't think reaching out would be a bad idea.

Send messages once a month or so letting her know you're thinking about her. If she responds, great! If not, that's okay, send 'em anyway.

I have a tendency to forget about anything that isn't directly in front of my face. I love talking to and hanging out with my old friends from school, but I don't often think to send a message just to say hi, and sometimes I realize that I haven't talked to any of them in over a year or so.

It never hurts to send a "Hey! How's it going?" message when you haven't heard from someone in a while. I know that even though I'm really bad at sending them, I'm always happy to receive them!

Speaking as someone with recurrent severe depression, my closest friends are the ones who harass me with their love. That said, I would never want someone to try to reach me through my family. Her situation might be different.

Depression is very isolating, it can make you feel unworthy of being around people because you can't be fun, and you get anxious about making "mistakes."

My favorite people are the ones who randomly show up, drag me out, ask me for help with something (introvert cheat code,) and buy me games without asking so we can play together.

If she's an adult, she's capable of telling someone to back off if it's too much.

From my n=1 data:

The self-isolation could come from not being able to be there for you as well and feeling unworthy of your friendship because of that.

Express your love, indicate there is expectation of quid pro quo, just say your heart and door are always open.

I would suggest Send memes or funny images if you can. Sending messages might feel more stressful, they might think they need to answer. Images have no expectations of respond.

Even books or podcast things like " I know you like this topic, and when I saw this book I thought you might enjoy it "

Speaking as one of those "I self isolated and stop responding to friends" folks years later:

Definitely reach out. Emphasize not to worry about the ghosting; I guarantee she's literally worried sick over it. Do it, even if you have to do it through family. They'll all be glad.

I think you can reach out via txt, just format your message to subtly acknowledge that a response is unnecessary. So, instead of wording your message normally as something that would begin a back-and-forth, word it more like an old fashioned letter, or something else where a response isn't expected. Can talk about whatever, updates on you, your thoughts about this or that, hopes she/her family are doing better, etc etc. Then just end with an old sounding "hope this finds you well" type of thing. Just avoid non-rhetorical questions or anything that pressures her to return contact. When she's ready, she can write you back.

I can't really give the best advice. A while ago I went through some things and decided to avoid all my friends. I remember, decpite my decision, I really would've loved if one of my close friends reached out. Idk about your friend though, everyone is different. If I were you I would definitely reach out. Make them understand that you really care about them.

Start making timelines.

If she doesn't respond like say, 3 honest months from now? You could say it's a dead friendship. Mental issues destroys people and it is not always a wise decision to try and like, feel like you've gotta force a way in because that could make it worse. It could make someone pressurized and that pressure could build up in them to enact and it might not be the kind of action you'd want.

But two years though? That's kindof tough to gauge really, I've had people like that and honestly they just get quietly discarded. No parting words, nothing. Some people just need all of the time in the world, literally and it's sad when it happens when that's the choice they're going to make for themselves.

Whats much later? People need to give me a week and then can start worrying although if I have a crazy busy weekend that would be the reason I did not get back within a week. Honestly fridays are kinda dangerous as I tend to work on stuff based on oldest first so that I don't get to behind. Granted priorities and situation. My wife will hear back in less than a day but it could be in person.