I tried quietly withdrawing, but she kept ringing me to talk about her problems. Eventually I sent her an email saying I felt a bit sidelined as she tended not to ask how I was but just talk about herself, which she ignored. I asked her about it, saying maybe she just didn't get it, and she said: "Well I don't do one-sided friendships, so I don't know what you're talking about."

I realised then that there was just no hope, and next time she contacted me I politely said I didn't have time to speak, did that repeatedly and she got the message. I felt bad but there was just no hope!

I think I handled it better when another friend went through a phase of only contacting me when she had a problem. With her, she hadn't always been like that, it was a long phase (several months). Eventually I just told her I was happy to be there and listen but I also liked hearing from her when good stuff was happening and it would be lovely if sometimes she just rang to say hi, not to complain. She did actually get the message... I felt terrible, though.