You are disappointed, but you handle it the best way you know how by not expecting much or anything at all, as this is how these friendships worked in the past. You learned how not to get your hopes up, and it works for you and it has for years. So you continue this method of yours, even when new friends come into the picture. They show up and are constantly there for you, but you are still wondering, “When is being forgotten about feeling going to happen?”
Yet the new people show up month after month, year after year. They are human though, and humans are not perfect. They can disappoint you at some point.
But here is the thing that method you created for you, that wall you put up, come up when they disappoint you and you handle it the way you always have. That keeps you from getting hurt, just like in past friendships. But because of these new friendships, you begin to slowly break down that wall. You can open up about this issue, and they may tell that you should not feel this way or you should not have handled being let down like you do. However, you still do it, not because you wanted to, but because you felt you had to do it that way. You felt like you had to do something, and that is what you know. Some people have not been as disappointed as you have been, so they do not know how to handle it like you do. Is there a right way and a wrong way to deal with being let down? Absolutely! This is just a way that you have created a way of protecting yourself from being let down. But no matter what, these new core people have disappoint you less and you are more open with them.
Find people like that, who makes you feel like you matter and are not an afterthought. That is really how you handle being let down.
