i haven't cut out of my life many people who really cared for me. practically noone now that you brought it up. how many people REALLY care for me? i could count them using one finger. plus i'd never cut my wrists or any other part of my body. what happens in my relationships is that i can have an exchange with people, open myself up in order for others to do so (if this is manipulative i just realized, so maybe i am manipulative in this respect) and the other will tend to preach to me, give me all kinds of advice, patronize (that last thing i can't tolerate) and pretend they have nothing sinister or as weak in their little frames, and at the same time live their own lives as thinly veiled self-absorbed, saddened and narcissistic beings, requiring me to read between the lines of their emotional lives and discounting my own truth, that i already knew about, that i wanted to talk about or share in the first place, creating this parent/child role that makes me angry and dismissive. when the friend does this i give up. i get tired of being the one to put out the energy. frankly i only turn away from someone when i've reached closure on the relationship, then it's for good. when young and i was visibly upset it could only take a reasonably timed and moderate attempt to heal the divide and i would talk about the problem to solve whatever it was that was bothering me. its just that most people didn't/don't care or recognize the crap they deal out and in my old age i'm not gonna go there anymore...not worth it to me.