Defriending: Navigating the Friendship Breakup

Friend breakups can be as bad as romantic breakups. Actually, they can be worse, way worse, because there's no roadmap for them. Dr. Faith walks you through this unfortunately universal life event. First off, figuring out if you can save the friendship (and if you want to), and giving that a try. Second off, all the ways people break up with friends, rated on a scale of relative healthfulness, with some scripts for having those hard conversations. Finally, tips for recovering from your friend break-up, whether you're the breaker-upper, or the break-upee. Sad to say that this is a useful skill set for everyone of every age. Read and decide how you'll handle the imminent or ongoing friend split in your life, or evaluate how you've handled them in the past and be prepared to do it better in the future. Pro tip: All this advice is also helpful for relationship break-ups and divorces, quitting your job, or moving on in general from entanglements that may be toxic or may simply not be working out.