The people who saw you at your lowest and stayed are your real inner circle. Everyone else joined later.

Difficulty sorts people without asking anyone’s permission. Anyone can be around when things are fine, and it takes very little; staying when you were not good company, when there was nothing in it for them, is a different act entirely. Those who did that have already given you the only evidence that matters.

Make sure they know where they stand with you, in words, since people rarely assume it. Protect that small group even when your life fills up with newer, easier company. And when someone else is at their lowest, remember what that took and stay.