By Paula Jones (United Kingdom)
Friendship groups are rife with politics and the potential to turn nasty. When you put a group of people together, it’s easy to get along on a superficial level, but once real personalities start to emerge, it can become difficult to maintain a friendship, particularly when all you initially have in common is one interest, a group you all attend, a business type, or whatever.
But I want to let you into a secret. It’s okay to not be part of this.
If you know your friendships are dying then there are lots of ways to break contact, but it needs to be done. Suddenly finding yourself ostracised is very unpleasant and an unhappy place to be, particularly when you did not realise there was anything wrong. And, it does not matter how old we get. We are talked about, ostracised, bitched about; it does not change. My mum lives in sheltered housing for the elderly where gossip is rife; I have been in the position where my “friends”, and yes, I use the term loosely, have dumped me.