A woman says “breaking up” with her best friend was much harder than any relationship split - and it even left her in therapy.<br /><br />Sabrina Kirberg, 31, had a decade long friendship with her best friend until they finally ended up parting ways after an argument, she claims.<br /><br />She said she went through the “five stages of grief,” and believes it’s not as easy as “eating ice cream and having time with your girls” - like a typical break-up. <br /><br />She had to seek therapy to help her "grieve" the friendship and still thinks about her friend everyday.<br /><br />Sabrina, a mental health co-ordinator from New York City, said: “Breaking up with a friend is like grief. You go through denial. It’s so much worse than relationship break-ups. <br /><br />“You think you’ll be fine and you just need to get through the rough patch - but then comes the depression and you just find yourself crying all the time. <br /><br />“When it comes to a romantic relationship you’ll be sad, have your ice cream and go out with your girls. <br /><br />“But losing my best friend was like having my support system ripped away from me, all at once.”<br /><br />Sabrina met her ex-best friend at an athletics club when they were 16, she says.<br /><br />They shared a number of “firsts” together over the years - including first boyfriends, passing their driving tests at the same time, and being allowed to hang out without parents supervision. <br /><br />But as they got older, they began bickering a lot more Sabrina claims - and she felt left out when her friend started spending time with other people. <br /><br />After Sabrina met her partner, Nathanial Baker, 29, she says the two grew even further apart. <br /><br />The pair had one last argument - during which they argued about Nathanial, she claims.<br /><br />Sabrina didn’t reach out afterwards, and they haven’t spoken since. <br /><br />She said: “There’s a lot that triggered the break-up - there were a lot of mean words and anger thrown around."<br /><br />Sabrina says she’s still coming to terms with her friendship break-up, five years later - and has gone through the five stages of grief in order to accept it. <br /><br />She denied the break-up was happening at first, thinking the pair would make up just like they’d done before. <br /><br />Then, she became angry - as well as depressed, and says she “cried all the time”. <br /><br />Sabrina said: “All you do is ruminate.<br /><br />“You go through the memories all over again.<br /><br />“I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the catalyst for our breakup - everything I could’ve done better. <br /><br />“I just got angry and ashamed of myself for seeing the red flags in the relationship and ignoring them - and why didn’t I end the friendship earlier?<br /><br />“You go into bargaining a lot when you’re reliving the memories, which is just like the third stage of grief. I kept thinking, ‘if I’d done things this way, it would’ve happened differently in this way’ - and it spirals out of control.”<br /><br />Sabrina still thinks about the friend on a daily basis - but she has worked through her feelings in therapy.<br /><br />She said: “Years after, I still think about her every day.
