It’s sad and frustrating when someone you love is struggling but not doing what they need to do.

If you had a friend who was struggling with their mental health, would you lend a listening ear anytime they needed to vent, or would you insist that they talk to a therapist?

In this story, one woman is in that exact situation, but convincing her friend to see a therapist is much easier said than done.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for telling my friend she should go and see a therapist instead of making me be one?

I have been friends with “Kate” for nearly 20 years.

I live in different country from Kate and the time difference is about 5-6 hours (moved when I was a teen), so it is not a recent thing.

At the moment I can not travel back to my home country and be safe there.

Recently, some concerning behavior has come to light.

Over the past few years Kate seems to have developed some mental issues, which became significantly worse with her giving birth to her first child late last year.

She would come across as if she is spiraling.

Kate would send 40 messages to me in a space of 10 minutes or paragraphs of text and if I don’t respond within a minute she would start calling and crying or recording the voice messages saying she can’t do this anymore.

That can happen at any time of day including when I am sleeping or working.

The situation is getting worse.

I have tried turning my phone off but she would start contacting my family members making it sound like something might have happened to me so they would become worried too.

This behaviour started about 2 years and I am honestly exhausted.

I did some therapy for myself and shared some solutions to help with anxiety and stuff, but Kate seems to be getting worse and worse.

She gets incredibly angry when I don’t have an immediate solution to “Fix her” or tell her what is wrong with her.

It’s not like Kate can’t afford therapy.

Kate’s family is extraordinarily wealthy.

Like she can easily afford a brand new sport car without it making a noticeable dent in her account.

She has a loving family, husband and an entire fleet of different helpers from a personal nail professional to 3 nannies for her child that are working 24/7.

I am only saying this to show she can easily afford a good therapist.

So she put her foot down.

Last weekend I snapped and basically I told her that I am tired of her behaviour. I said she really needs to see a proper therapist as her behaviour is very concerning.

I have told her I am available to talk when she needs me but I am not a therapist and she needs to address her issues professionally before they get even worse.

Kate called me a jerk and blamed me for not supporting her.

She’s been telling our mutual friends how “She was venting to me and I just cut her off.”

It sounds like Kate really does not to start “venting” to a therapist.

Here is what people are saying on Reddit.

Sometimes you need to be blunt.

Indeed. Her illness doesn’t make this okay.

I agree; it sounds serious.

You can only do so much.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.