I have a friend (another girl) who is very sensitive and may enter into depression. How can I reduce her emotional reliance on me?

[LostGirl09]

This girl doesn’t have many friends and messages me “Good morning!”, “Good night!” and “What are you doing today?” everyday. She also says “She misses me!” and “She hasn’t heard from me for really long!” when I replies to her every week! I feel that this is causing a toll on my mental wellbeing and wish to address this issue.

[Oliverlogan263]

Here are some suggestions on how to gently reduce her emotional reliance on you in a caring way:

- Encourage her to develop other friendships. Introduce her to your friends so she can build a support system.

- Suggest fun activities you both can do with a group, like a sports team, book club, craft night. That way she's not just focusing on you.

- When you can't text back right away, let her know you'll be busy so she's not constantly waiting by the phone. Reassure her it's not because you don't care.

- Compliment her strengths and encourage her hobbies so she builds confidence and self-esteem from within rather than relying on your messages.

- Gently explain you need balance for your own mental health, and while you care about her you can't be her only source of social interaction.

- Offer to help her find counseling or support groups to work on underlying issues causing anxiety/depression.

- Set clear boundaries but express care, like only responding every other day rather than daily messages. Be consistent so she learns.

With empathy and communication, hopefully she'll start to adjust over time to depend less on any one person. Your friendship can still be important without so much daily reliance.

[Staximus]

Tell her she needs to get a boyfriend and help her find one so she's not lonely all the time and has somebody else to bother.

[Monalisa77]

she's lucky she has u, i literally have noone 😂