I'm suffering terribly because I've lost an admired athlete.

[Defenestration]

I'm suffering terribly because I've lost an admired athlete. I'm a fan of throwing events, and I had an Instagram page about throwing.

I used to connect with a very strong young athlete, and I asked him if I could make a t-shirt of him, like the ones I had of other throwers... He didn't reply. I sent him a message to apologize, and he said, "No problem, I'm not mad at you."

But then, during the day, he changed his account, emptied it, and now has a new private account. I can't follow him anymore. I've been devastated for three days...

I have borderline personality disorder/bipolar disorder/social phobia/generalized anxiety disorder/. I'm suffering terribly. I loved this sport, and now one of the best young athletes in my country has blocked me.

 

[doomedbynarrative]

Oh man I'm really sorry. I know borderline can make any kind of rejection feel like being run through with a knife and is extremely painful.

Athletes at the professional or semi professional level are often advised by coaches and such to maintain a sense of emotional distance from people they are not super close with on an in real life basis. This is done if they are trying to make a good career in the sport so that there's no chance of bad publicity later on down the line. So I imagine maybe putting in those boundaries was doing that and maybe on advice of someone.

Either way I'm really sorry you had to experience the pain of rejection from someone you really admired and felt a sense of closeness to. I know it has to hurt a lot.