...would be much appreciated.

I have a friend. She's a lovely person but not too happy in her life at the moment. She's single, in a job she hates and it seems like every guy she's interested in is either in a relationship and/or isn't interested in her.

it feels like every time we go out she drinks to a point of being completely wrecked, gets upset about some (usually minor) thing and spends ages crying on my shoulder.

Whilst it's nice that she feels she can talk to me and I want to do what I can to help her, it's really started to get me down too and, much as I like her, I'm starting to dread seeing her 'cos I know how the evening's gonna end. I'm really not a selfish person but I do want to enjoy myself when I go out rather than spending the evening trying to comfort people (this week I've been out 4 times and on 2 of those occasions she's been talking through her problems with me whilst on the other another friend spending 2 hours asking for relationship advice.)

What's more I'm worried that I'm not helping her out and that, whilst talking about problems can help, she's using me as an emotional crutch rather than doing anything positive to help herself out.

It's having a toll on me too 'cos my life's not in the best of shape at the moment (it seems that every girl I ever meet wants to be my friend rather than anything else) and, whilst my friend seems to be fine afterward her crying session, it tends to remind me of how frustrated I am with my own life so I end up feeling down.

So...any advice?