These days, a lot of people have depression coupled with stressful obligations. I have a friend who ghosted me half a year ago. Before that, he had a week off to catch up, play games, and talk over voice chat. Things were great for the first two days, then suddenly, he went AWOL on me. He hasn't replied to my texts and has been offline on Steam for a while. But his Steam profile indicates he's been playing a few games for the past month, though sporadically.

Of course, he has a stressful job, a wife, and kids, which is taxing both mentally and physically, although I wish he would get back to me. I guess silence is its own reply. Maybe I said something that invoked indelible cringe, and it disgusted him. Who knows. In any case, I wish him all the best and hope he's doing well.

I had another friend who also ghosted me for two years, then out of the blue, he messaged me, and to my joy, we picked up where we left off. He ignored me for so long because he was riven with anxieties, girlfriend troubles, and working in a job filled with idiots. And also, according to him, he was embarrassed at his circumstance compared to mine, and needed time to work on himself, which is unbelievably silly because he wasn't doing too bad for himself career-wise while I was (and still am) absolutely miserable, sojourned in a city I hate working in finance, which I also hate.

I wish I pursued my passion for geology instead. I probably would have met more interesting people instead of interacting with narcissists and sociopaths. But I chose Finance because MONEY.