Friend Who 'Blocked' Woman From Life After 15 Years Backed for Drastic Plan

The internet has urged a woman to block her "self-centered" friend after revealing that she felt like she was being used for emotional support, and her friend never really cared about her.

In a post shared on Mumsnet on Sunday, under the username Friendblocker1234, she explained that her friend of 15 years, Mary, has had a hard life, going through an abusive relationship, and she's always been there to offer comfort and support.

But Mary never has bothered to ask her how she's feeling or even send birthday wishes, and after putting up with her behavior for many years she's now decided to cut her out of her life.

She wrote: "Mary often calls late at night when she has been drinking to tell me all of the difficulties she's having in her life. It then often goes months where she will not answer my messages and not call me but will post pictures on Facebook of days out and happy moments in her life."

"I feel like she emotionally offloads on to me and only wants me to know about the negative parts of her life, I feel like a counselor more than a friend."

According to Mental Health America, 19.86 percent of adults in this country are currently experiencing a mental illness, which is equivalent to nearly 50 million Americans, and about 4.91 percent of those are experiencing a severe mental illness.

Megan Vogels, a licensed professional counselor, told Newsweek that it's very understandable to feel frustrated, offended, and even sad in regards to her friend and the way she's behaving toward her, although perhaps her friend meant no ill intentions.

She said: "It could be possible that the friend had no idea how she was coming off or what her friend was feeling. Maybe she was just oblivious or distracted. Doesn't make her actions OK, but it could explain them. And maybe she would have been interested in changing and repairing the friendship."

According to Vogels, even though the poster had every right to react the way she did, a conversation, or even an email, would have been more direct and kind. "Many people are afraid of conflict and being direct, but it can be a useful tool in getting us what we want."

About 93 percent of all the 203 users who voted in the poll believed the poster was not being unreasonable to cut her friend out of her life completely after so many unreciprocated efforts.

One user, Brigante9 commented: "She's not really a friend, is she? She just wants to use you to dump negativity, not reciprocated cards/gifts? Stop sending her stuff."

And MeowMeowPowerRangers said: "Block Mary and move on. I had a friend like this, constant drama about her life dumped onto me but always neglected to ask how I was. I don't miss it not one but." Although on the other side, Metabigot wrote: "I think it's harsh to block. Do a slow fade. I'm not a fan of blocking unless in extremis, it's so rude."

Cw112 added: "I don't really see the point in blocking someone. If you valued the friendship you could have spoken to her and called her out on it and given her a chance to change her behaviors. But at the end of the day, you don't need to invest in anyone you don't want to invest in."

Newsweek was not able to verify the details of the case.