I realize they weren't worth my time and move on.

If it's something I can't change, I put it out of my mind right away because it's not serving any purpose to enhance my life or make it positive. We just can't afford to entertain those thoughts and Satan works through people's minds, to upset them, cause them anxiety, or get them depressed. I keep my mind stayed on the Lord and things that encourage, support, and enhance my life. My life is too short to sit around and think about negative, sad things, that do me no good and I can't change, anyway. Our mind believes what we tell it, so I try to guard my thoughts and try to remember to let the Holy Spirit lead me. My motto is: Never let yesterday, steal Joy from today.

I try to put them in context with terrible things that happened in the past that I survived.

Friends help but there is only so much they can do. Sometimes you have to be your own rescue party.

I just shake the dust off and move on.

I remind myself that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. Friends evolve and move on, and so will I. Get new friends, find new interests, and whatever you do, don’t blame yourself. This is all part of the journey. Good luck!

I remember that no one is perfect and depending on how they let me down I will either stick with them or walk away. Most times I find the reason they let me down is because I expect them to be like me which means I didn’t get to know and understand them. If I had then it would not be a surprise and I probably would have moved on once I learned what they we capable of or not capable of.

I hate to say and I'm not being hard on you and once you realise it and go through the pain , you'll see a brighter side to you .
What I'm saying with that is your on your own 24/7 . People will let you down and half of that darkness might not be darkness at all but self pity . Why you think that and once you see it you won't need no one to make you happy .
The self pity comes from a disappointment of a " friend or friends' that's coming from your looking for someone to lean on a reassurance that if there happy with you your happy with yourself .
Wake up to life what happiness is not thrills

They appear in phases just like night and day. Sure, the dark period let people look down on themselves but it's an art that comes through practice not to look down upon yourself or anyone.
Just as we are about to play a sport and we wait eagerly for the sunlight, in this case, we eagerly look for the clouds of darkness to go away and make effort in the positive direction.
We have faith, we have hope. That concoction can make darkness disappear.

I didnt give my friends that much capacity to hurt my sentiments. I believe in self love.

Maybe this is too semantic of me, but i find the darkness more comfortable to be in, so that i see with more clarity what does have light in it, the world, life itself is naturally dark. When one is enjoying for example friends in good times, this is what could probably be called false, not real, so when you get let down, see it as being told the truth for a change, and be thankful for that.

I think the key is to move on very quickly, and not look back.

Coping strategies are quite complex.
Have a wide range of friends and interests.

This site throws up all sorts of people. Some very genuine, some who will take you for a ride. The trick is to ignore the ones who hurt you. They are just sad lonely people who ought to get a life.

I learned too soon to not rely on friends with anything.

I go to a dark quiet room where I can think.

I tend to withdraw and isolate myself. For years I really tried to not be in a position where I need to count on friends and family but I'm learning I just needed to set up healthier boundaries with them and that I need to forge newer healthy relationships with emotionally healthy people.

Life in it's entirety feels like a 'dark period', but perhaps life is the true '50 shades of grey' in that the level of despair/despondence/anxiety about life and especially about 'adult things' (mostly sex, relationships, intimacy, friends) is a continuously variable thing that is never either 0 pct or 100 pct but somewhere in between.

I've narrowed down who my actual friends are ...that list gets smaller and smaller ...you can't really trust or count on many ...but you learn it's ok and to just be grateful for the few you can

Change

PTSD counseling and my cross dressing are my ways back into the light honestly speaking and since you asked.

in the past I'd just pivot to the people that haven't let me down but now I'm entirely alone

I would like an answer to this too. All I can do is grit my teeth and wait it out

Pretend it never happened and move on.

Friends, what is this?

Flashlights

I love my friends. Rarely do they let me down. I am aware they are humans and are flawed. And busy.

burry them with the dead and move on.

I isolate myself and ignore those who hurt me

I have come to realize that any dark periods I experience are self-induced. This means they didn't happen TO me, they happened BY me. I did this by attracting the dark to myself instead of the light. I had a choice but I chose wrong at first, but then I changed my mind and my life changed around my new thoughts!

When I began to take responsibility for the illusion I was creating in my mind that I was a victim, only then did those dark periods suddenly begin to disappear until they never actually showed up again even when life got totally off the rails.

There are no longer dark periods in my life because I've stopped judging my circumstances and I no longer try to control anything. I just take my hands off it completely to see where everything wants to land on it's own.

music and poetry help me