I hate that I do this, but there are friends/acquaintances in my life that I would mask around, and my mental health and general motivation has been very bad lately, meaning that when they reach out to me, I just don’t have the mental stamina – which I usually had – to open that message/take that call and reply to them. We were friends sort of out of inertia from the past, and I was kinda hoping we’d drift apart naturally, but they keep calling me even though I told them that my mental health is bad rn and I’d reach out later. I just want to be left to be depressed in peace rn plus seeing them again I’d have to address my compounding guilt of ghosting them, and that’s something I’d have to mentally barge though. But it’s not their fault that I’m tired ‘of them’, so it’s a tricky situation and I feel like a terrible person for it ending the way it does.
Obviously it depends on the friendship, but I wouldn’t say this unless you’ve done some evaluation of the phrase “have to”. I think it’s pretty easy to get so used to doing it that you overlook when it might not be necessary, and that could read a bit hurtful to people who really care. Just omit that phrase and it sounds more blame-agnostic. Maybe it’s more fair or maybe not, but I know which side I’d rather err on.