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Advice on non-bastardish ways to let down a friend you don't like/have much in common with any more?
Anyone got any useful tips? The person in question's very nice and I don't want to upset her but she's also incredibly needy and insecure and to be honest I'm no longer getting anything out of the friendship. Thing is she really lacks confidence and doesn't have many friends so it'd be bad for her if we didn't hang out anymore.
The problem is I tend to see her a lot at places where I've got other friends I'd probably rather talk to but then she winds up clinging to me all night because she doesn't know many other people.
I think much of the problem in fact is that she really lacks confidence and, through fear of not being liked, basically makes sure she's nice and inoffensive to the point of being bland and just doesn't express any kind of her personality.
I really hoped when she got a boyfriend last year it'd bring her out of herself a bit (but it didn't really) and have tried to involve in stuff I'm doing, or encourage her to pursue hobbies of her own in the hope she'll get a bit more confidence but it just isn't working and it's at the point where I find being around her a bit of a drain and a drag.
I feel like a bastard as I became friends with her a couple of years back when I barely knew anyone in London and I'm massively grateful to her for being around for me then but at the same time I've just got nothing in common with her, find talking to her an effort that I don't especially enjoy and don't think it does her or me any good for us to hang round together when I evidently don't really want to do so.
Feel free to think I'm a terrible person for posting this by the way...