commentary on friendship psychology

How to End a Toxic Friendship — And Why Losing a Friend Can Hurt More Than Losing a Partner

Ending a toxic friendship is one of the least acknowledged forms of emotional labor. We talk endlessly about breakups, divorce, infidelity—but rarely about the quieter, less dramatic devastation of realizing someone you once trusted, laughed with, and built identity around has become harmful to your life. This commentary essay explores how to end a toxic friendship not as a series of steps, but as a psychological and emotional reckoning with loyalty, guilt, grief, and self-preservation.