do you believe it is possible to be just friends with someone you have fallen in love with but who does not feel the same way back?

Is friendship ever enough in anyone's experience or is it better to just walk away?

Yeah it is; if you really enjoy spending time with someone then do so, why do you have to be romamtically involved.

I think it depends on the level of friendship beforehand, the level of communication, and if or how those feelings may still stew after rejection. As well as a million other factors.

When I was 16, I had confessed feelings to my best friend, who had a huge crush on someone else. I was gently rejected and then just buried those feelings for about six months, and in that time, he started feeling the same way.

While in that relationship, which I was in for a while, one of my two best friends had confessed feelings for me, but mainly because he and I are like siblings and he was telling me it was why he felt he couldn't be as close to me anymore because he felt it inappropriate since I was planning a wedding.

We still maintained a good friendship and as far as I knew, he had dropped those feelings since he had been on dates with and pursuing other girls over the course of the long while that I had even begun dating someone else. He confessed feelings again for me a few months back for the same reasons, and we are still best friends. He has told me he's dropped those feelings and is now actively pursuing other girls.

So mileage varies, I think. In both situations, I was able to maintain a good friendship. If there is a major collision between one party suddenly being careful in everything they do so as not to hurt the confessing party and the confessing party not wanting to do anything to "make things more awkward," it'll probably not work out very well.

EDIT: It'll also probably flop on its head of you are dating someone else while confessing to your friend and constantly texting that person what sixual whims you're thinking with them involved. Yep, happened to me, haha. I never responded and the guy's girlfriend (now wife) told me that he has cheated or tried to cheat on her with dozens of girls. When I continued to not respond, she messaged me on Facebook demanding to know why I'm a homewrecker. Wtf.

It's now a ridiculous story I tell in situations like this.

From my experience, if you "fall in love" with someone, the only two options which have a chance of flourishing for any healthy period of time are to be strictly friends or to just walk away.

I would never abandon someone just because I fell in love with that person and I knew that we'd never be together. That's not a very nice thing to do, especially if the other person sees you as a good friend.

I don't think that there is a straight-up right or wrong answer to this. It all depends on the people involved and what type of friendship it is.

In my own experience it's went both ways.

When I was in high school I went head-over-heels for a girl that I was friends with and, well, ... things didn't go good after I admitted my feelings for her, and while we tried to pretend to still be friends, we really weren't.

There was another girl later in high school that I was friends with that I developed feelings for, and even though she knew that I was interested in her nothing really changed.

However I was still young and really had no idea what I was doing or even supposed to be doing, well, I still don't but I've got a better hold on things now.

More recently, it's been different though.

One young woman that I knew and was friends with lead me on and messed with my head while she knew that I was interested in her. It's a bit of a long story, but when I found out what was really going on (she was sleeping with her boss, then left him after moving in with him) I walked away.

Right now, I'm good friends with someone who I've been very open about my feelings for, but ..... somehow we've missed each other somewhere along the way. I thought that she knew I was serious about what I think of her, and she thought that I knew that she was (for now, she says) only interested in other girls. I still have feelings for her, and I think that she knows it, but we're trying to keep things like they've always been.

I think that you've just got to figure it out yourself, and see where life takes you. If that makes any sense.......

I believe so, there's nothing wrong with just being really good friends (maybe friends with "benefits" who knows just saying), not every relationship end with marriage. I know my dad and this girl he's been seeing have this confusing relationship, they're friends but----well it's really hard to explain. I use to like the gal but then she started pulling some insecure crap on my dad and now I've lost all respect for her. Hell she doesn't even visit us and she get's upset when he doesn't visit her...a relationship is a two way road, either travel it or GTF off of it.

It happened to me once, and we kept being good friends after clearing things out. It depends on how does the other person feel about the situation and on how the people involved are. If you feel like you could still be friends then fine, if you feel that you won't be able to take watching her going out with other guys because you are deeply in love with her, and that is the only way you want to be with her then I suggest to walk away.

if you feel that you won't be able to take watching her going out with other guys because you are deeply in love with her, and that is the only way you want to be with her then I suggest to walk away.

this...

I guess you're right

I always dislike it when the desire for romance somehow outweighs the desire for friendship. If you enjoy her company that should be enough. If you both enjoy hanging out with each other, there's no reason to ruin that, maybe find someone else eventually if you're so inclined to. But abandoning a good friend just because she doesn't share your feelings for her seems kind of, to be frank, uh,
bad, even with the torments it might give you and the other valid reasons for it. How much can you really get out of a romantic relationship that you can't get by being friends? Maybe aside from knowing that your loved, but you can get that by being friends as well.

By that I mean that..you know..If you say that you understand her feelings about the situation but you are still in love with her and she starts going out with other guys..you may end up getting mad with her even knowing that it's not her fault as you told her that it's okay..and the next time she says ''Hello'' to you, you may not be so nice with her, because you will end up getting tired of suffering. And she may end up hiding things to you to not hurt your feelings..and when you know about it you'll be even more furious as you expect the truth from a person that means that much to you.

That's more or less what happened to me. After not talking to her for weeks I just ended up saying to her, ''Hey, I don't need more enemies, sorry for being an [censored].'' After time of thinking about it I was no longer in love with her and we ended up just being nice friends.

As I said, it depends on how you are and on how she is.