How best can a toxic friendship be dissolved without causing friction?
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You stop participating in it. A friendship is a mutually satisfying relationship. A toxic friendship means that you are being abused – this is no longer a friendship. So, you stop participating, you stop responding, you become a person who wants to know things – such as why are you supposed to do something when you don’t feel like it, and why are you the giving party and what will you get out of it.
The slow fade away usually works. Failing to initiate future plans, or allowing emails, texts, calls to go unanswered will eventually get the message across without requiring too much effort or drama on your part. No need to explain either, if you’re decisively over it. The fact is, no one really wants to hear why you don’t want to be friends any more than they’d want to know why you aren’t attracted to them. Allow the person to ‘save face’ by exiting the relationship quietly.