Thanks, Crankin. Given your education and training, that means a lot to me, especially since I won't see my therapist for another couple of weeks. I needed a gut check on it.

It shouldn't surpise me that my former friend can't appreciate how or why I drew a boundary. If she, herself, knew how to draw and enforce boundaries, she never would have spent one year, let alone eight, with a man that was simply awful to her. He used to stalk her for goodness sake! Why I'm internalizing what she said about me is beyond me. I need to trust my own judgment more.