Hey MickeyM,

I have been in a very similar situation before. It took me a few years to realize what was happening, and it's only in the last few months that I'm starting to do something about it. I know it's hard, as these people are your friends, but I think, kind of like what beauflow said, you need to consider what a real friend is and decide who those people are. It sounds like you know. The majority of the friends I had in college that are still geographically near me do that all the time (I am just about 24, but most of them are 26). Last semester I was hanging out with a bunch of them, and all they could do was talk negatively and put down this one other friend who had decided not to come because he was in a bad mood and didn't want to dampen the party and just needed time to himself. It was really juvenile and telling of just how those people can be. One of these friends in particular does almost nothing but try to mold things in his favor, being super judgemental about everyone else and really treating me poorly in specific, though he never understood that he was. Sometimes they don't know or realize the way they're acting. The best thing to do, as I'm coming to realize, is to either stop interacting with them altogether or, if you are like me and find that difficult to impossible, slowly start to change who you spend your time with and who you talk to. Go to those few healthy, true friends. If you're in the group setting, that's ok, have your conversations with those friends. I know I didn't have a lot to offer here, but I hope it was a little helpful, at least to know that this happens to other people too.

TinySparrow