Our friend is 21 years old and has a 20-year-old boyfriend. They have been together for 6 months. We have been her friends for about 11 years, and after she started this relationship, we noticed that she changed and did not want to talk to us as much anymore.
We talked to her and found out that her boyfriend had hurt her physcially and emotionally several times. He called her a b*tch and accused her of wanting to cheat on him, even though she never did anything like that. He is very insecure and controlling.
The last time our friend tried to break up with him, he blackmailed her by threatening to post her nude photos online. On her birthday, she tried to end the relationship again, and he cried a lot and said everything was his fault and that he would try to fix their relationship. But she did not believe him. When he realized she no longer wanted to talk to him, he started messaging us and asking us to help save their relationship. He even sent me a 10-minute voice recording.
After all of this, we stopped talking to him and tried to keep him away from our friend. However, even though our friend’s mother knows about everything he did to her, she still does not support the breakup and instead tries to encourage their relationship.
Unfortunately, we recently found out that our friend forgave her ex-boyfriend and got back together with him. They are now going to couples therapy. But we do not think his behavior is only because of psychological issues, and we are afraid he will act the same way again in the future.
We also feel like our friend avoids talking to us now, especially when it comes to her relationship. We do not know what we are supposed to do to help our friend anymore.