Man Feels Regret For Throwing Away Autistic Best Friend’s Security Blanket After His Girlfriend Told Him To
There are so many things wrong with what he did.
Pixel-Shot / Shutterstock.com A man shared his story about a time he threw his 24-year-old best friend’s blanket away after his friend’s girlfriend requested him to.
His best friend has high-functioning autism and often used the blanket as an escape — he would talk to the blanket and wrap himself in it and hold it in times of duress and need.
However, his best friend’s reaction has him wondering if he did the right thing, so, as all people do when they’re unsure of the choices they made being the right ones, he went to the subreddit r/AmItheA--hole to discuss with internet strangers whether or not he messed up.
The best friend’s girlfriend told him to throw her boyfriend’s blanket away for her, only to regret it later
The post begins with a little bit of context — giving us some background information about his best friend and the groups he’s surrounded by.
According to him, his best friend has a secret that only him, and his best friend’s girlfriend know — and it’s the security blanket.
“He keeps a security blanket in his room and talks and hugs with it,” the poster continued. “He says the blanket got him throughout traumatic moments in his childhood kinda like that character from the cartoon Peanuts.”
This doesn’t seem abnormal, and the original poster agrees, continuing in the post that he doesn’t mind the fact that his best friend has this security blanket.
A lot of people attach themselves to things that helped them through hard times and find comfort in them in times of need since they helped in previously difficult situations.
But apparently, his best friend’s girlfriend has a problem with it.
“His blanket has been straining his relationship with his girlfriend of 1 year. She tells me he gives more love to the blanket when he's stressed out and she feels like he loves the blanket more than her,” he continues.
“So she asks me to get rid of it and when he was at work I took the blanket away and threw it in the local dumpster.”
When they informed him about the blanket, however, he broke down in tears and locked himself in his room for two days — not speaking to anyone and also skipping out on work.
Before some edits he made after reading all of the criticism he received, he wrote “Am I in the wrong in this? I feel like he should [take] responsibility in this relationship considering he is an adult. [His girlfriend and I] agree he shouldn't be fixating on this object and move on from his childhood.”
The subreddit has a rating system which is based on comments that will either read, NTA, which stands for “Not The A--hole,” YTA, which stands for “You’re The A--hole,” NAH, which means “No A--holes Here,” or ESH, which means “Everyone Sucks Here.”
If anyone could guess, the comments were filled with YTA ratings — and rightfully so.
“YTA. His girlfriend is also a major a--hole,” said the top comment. “The blanket was his coping mechanism, something that is highly encouraged by therapists to find. I cannot believe you did that. He deserves so much better than the two of you.”
Coping mechanisms are only bad for you if they’re harmful, which a security blanket is not. But the bluntly-put comments don’t end there for this poster.
“YTA. You're also an idiot,” read another top comment. “How did you let someone convince you to do her dirty work for her? She tells you the blanket is stupid and you're like, ‘That's right! I should betray my friend's trust!’ Lots of people hold on to embarrassing sentimental things from childhood.”
Which is entirely true. The poster claimed that this person was his best friend and someone who trusts him and shares one of his deepest secrets to — only to drop that trust on a whim because the girlfriend is jealous of a blanket, which is something other people commented on as well.
“If the girlfriend is threatened by a BLANKET, she is too immature to be in a relationship,” wrote someone else.
“You agreeing with her against the best interests of your supposed best friend is vile. If he was truly your best friend, you would understand why this comfort item is important to him and support him. You're a major AH here.”
The girlfriend should be more understanding of her boyfriend’s coping mechanism and shouldn’t feel threatened by it, let alone try to get rid of it.
Fortunately, the original poster learned the error of his ways after reading all of the brutalizing comments and tried to explain that he only believed he was right because his friends told him it was the right thing to do.
He decided to leave work and go back to the dumpster he dropped the blanket into, pick it back up and send it to professional cleaners so he could give it back.
One can only hope that after this, the poster learns how to be a better friend and not to do things that would hurt his best friend because someone else told him to do it.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.