13 People Who Cut Off Toxic Friends to Protect Their Sanity

Let's face it: breaking up with a toxic friend can be even harder than breaking up with a bad relationship. At least with a partner, there are rules (and sometimes ice cream). Friendships, though? They're trickier. You might ignore the red flags because of history, shared memes, or the fact that they still have your favorite hoodie. But sometimes, for the sake of your own sanity, you need to hit the metaphorical "unfriend" button and walk away. All over the Internet, brave souls have shared their most satisfying, dramatic, and sometimes hilarious stories of cutting ties with toxic friends. Spoiler: their lives got a lot better afterward.

• My friend was a constant borrower. The final straw was when she borrowed my sewing machine for a week, but it was 6 months later when I had to ask for it back to use it. I brought it home and plugged it in and it wouldn’t sew. She refused to take any responsibility for fixing it. It took me that long to figure out that she was an opportunist. © rewiredmylamp / Reddit
• I had known this guy since kindergarten and was friends with him until our early twenties. Towards the end of the friendship, he started exhibiting some really self-destructive behavior. A little over a year ago we had gone out in a neighboring town and his girlfriend was our driver. On the way home they got into an argument and he pulled the handbrake while we were going about 75 on the freeway. We all walked away with very minor injuries. We got towed back to our town and I haven’t spoken to him since. © UnderstandingSad3160 / Reddit
• He was constantly complaining about how broke he was, how terrible his life was, but when I said, “Hey, maybe you wouldn’t be broke if you actually bought groceries instead of eating out every meal,” he yelled at me and said I didn’t understand and why was I giving him a hard time, blah blah blah.
  Okay. I dropped him.
  A few months later, I call him because he owes me money (that I’ll never see again) and guess what? He says he can’t pay me back because he lost his job and his car was repossessed. Shocked! I’m SHOCKED, I tell you! 🙄
  Oh well, it was totally worth $180 to not have to listen to that whining anymore. © produkt921 / Reddit

• I had a whole group of friends who hated me (obviously I didn’t know that). One year, for my birthday, they all said they were coming to my party. I kept getting individual texts saying things like “on my way” and “be there soon.” But in reality, they all met up and made fun of me the whole time. They also texted others that the party was canceled or just not to show up and hang out with them instead. © b***dChild / Reddit
• I had a good friend for over 15 years.
  My wife and I let him live in our finished basement rent-free for months after he was kicked out of his father’s house (as an adult, he had moved back in due to lack of funds). He stayed 90 days longer than we had originally agreed, and was messier than we liked. The last straw was when he spilled something on the carpet and didn’t clean it up. My wife texted him and asked him to clean it up several times over the course of a week. Finally, she gave him a deadline to get it done. He got angry and started cursing and insulting her. That was the last straw. I texted him once to let him know that everything he owned was now on the curb next to the dumpster. He could pick it up, or the garbage men, whoever got there first. I didn’t really care, but he and anything he owned were no longer welcome in my house. © ACBluto / Reddit
• I’m married and one of my best friends was a woman who was basically a younger sister to me. My wife never really had a problem with this because there were no trust issues. But around the 2nd year of our marriage, this “friend”, let’s call her J, decided to spread a rumor among my co-workers that we had a one-time affair. One of my co-workers told me and showed me proof that J was saying all these things. When I finally confronted her, she continued to lie until I showed her the screenshots of her texts. Then everything blew up, she got angry at me for not caring about her, not loving her, and for leaving her by getting married. Eventually, I found out that the one-time rumor wasn’t a one-time rumor and instead she had been saying this stuff to her co-workers and family since I got married that I was leaving my wife for her. © Pheliont / Reddit

• My friend texted me and said she had to call me about her wedding. I thought she was going to ask me to come, but instead she told me I couldn’t go. You see, my mother died within the last year, and she said I couldn’t bring bad luck to her joyous occasion (she’s into superstitions; they spent a lot of time picking the luckiest date, for example.)
  She sent me the invitation anyway, not wanting to be rude, but I wasn’t allowed to go. When I got the invitation, I just threw it away instead of replying that I wasn’t going. I really showed her. © ypsm / Reddit
• Months ago, my husband and I hit a financial crisis. Rent was due, and I was a bridesmaid at a friend’s wedding. She demanded $350 for a bridal event. Of course, I chose to pay rent and explained it to her. She was furious, called me a bad friend, and demoted me to a guest. Yesterday, she called me. Her voice was shaky. “Hi, it’s serious. My fiancé and I need to borrow some money. I know it’s been a while since we talked, but you’re the only one who can help us.” Turns out, they had both been laid off and were drowning in debt. The same friend who once shamed me for not spending money on her event now had nowhere to turn.
  I knew she had heard that our financial situation had improved and that we were about to buy a house. But after the way she so easily ended our friendship over money, I decided enough was enough. I didn’t lend her a dime. Maybe now she’ll understand how it feels. My life has been so peaceful since I stopped being friends with her. Funny how karma works.

• She was down for free dinners/treats, my clothes, and anything she could get her hands on. I planned a nice birthday for her and when it came to my birthday, she casually gave me a couple of used, ugly, expired lipsticks. When she did that, it made me realize that she made no effort for me when it was her turn to show me that she cared. When we both got into our own relationships around the same time and hers didn’t work out, she started acting jealous/nasty towards me. This changed the relationship for the worse. I broke up with her and cut her out of my life and we are no longer in contact. It took some time to get over it, but I’m accepting it now and my life is better without drama from her. © Properdabber / Reddit
• She wasn’t my worst friend, but this was the worst thing anyone ever did. I had just started dating a guy from our friend group. We were all in different classes, but he was often in the same class as her. As soon as we started dating, she became very clingy to him. She was always clinging to him, flirting with him, and generally acting like she was interested in him. After 2 months of dating, he broke up with me. I was heartbroken and as soon as he and I weren’t together, she stopped. It was suspicious for sure, but I just wanted to believe that she was still my close friend.
  Then I confided in her that I really liked another guy. She happened to be in a summer play with this guy that I wasn’t in because I was working all summer. Every time I see her, she goes on and on about how people think she and he are a couple and how she is always flirting with him. It made me realize that the only reason she was doing all this was because she wanted the attention on her, even if it meant stepping on her close friend’s feelings. I stopped confiding in her after that.
  A few years later, I met and married my husband, and she messaged him on Facebook to congratulate us and “interrogate him since I was her dear friend”. She quickly became flirtatious and my husband stopped responding. © breentee / Reddit

• I asked my friend if he could come by daily to feed my fish and test my water. Ran a decent saltwater tank. A nice 150-gallon bow-front, and it was beautiful. I was out of town for 2 weeks. I gave him $200 to do it and he said “yeah, no problem, it’s on my way home from work anyway.” When I got home I saw my tank had been nuked. He didn’t even come over once. I went to his house and confronted him. He basically shrugged the whole thing off. Said he’d just forgotten and that I could just start over like it was no big deal. I went home and had a good cry and cleaned up. Sold the equipment and gave up for about 3 years. I’ve never spoken to the guy again and have no intention of ever doing so. © averagesizefries23 / Reddit
• We were completely inseparable throughout middle and high school, and had always planned to stay together through college. She didn’t get into my first-choice schools, so (being an extremely stupid and anxious teenager) I foolishly agreed to go to a second-rate school with her instead... so I wouldn’t be alone.
  Shortly before the start of our freshman year, she informed me that she was no longer going to school with me and was instead moving to NYC to live with a guy she met on the internet. She’d known for months, but didn’t tell me until it was too late to do anything about it. © nottaclevername / Reddit
• I had been friends with her for almost a decade. When I got engaged, things started to change. She knew right away that she was going to be a bridesmaid and wanted to help with the planning and all the good stuff. A few months before the wedding she started to get “fishy” — she was always busy, wouldn’t answer her phone, or would be late when she decided to be somewhere. (For reference, I was a very laid back bride.) Well, the week before my shower, she texted me to say she couldn’t come to my final dress fitting. So. I was upset because she hadn’t done anything and didn’t have the guts to call me and explain instead of just texting. Things got worse and she basically went on about how I hated her boyfriend blah blah blah. Then she stopped talking to me less than a few weeks before the wedding. She also decided that it would be super nice of her to tell my sibling’s future fiancé that I hate his mom and all that nasty stuff. So I find a new maid of honor and move on with my life. Well here’s the kicker, she got engaged around the same time we stopped talking. Less than 3 months before her wedding she calls it off, it was just too stressful... Karma so much :) © Jinglebells12 / Reddit

Cutting off a toxic friend isn’t about being petty. It’s about protecting your peace, your energy, and sometimes your phone battery from endless drama texts. These Internet stories show that sometimes the healthiest thing to do is let go, even if it feels uncomfortable at first. And hey, once the dust settles, you’ll have room for friendships that actually make you feel good. If this hits close to home, you might also enjoy this collection of stories from people who have mastered the art of setting boundaries—and never looked back.