Long story short but there is woman I know. I have never really liked her. She is abrasive, rude, demanding. She can also be very kind and generous but most of the time she's a PITA. I know her because she was very good friends with several of my very good friends. So she just became one of a core group of us who went on holiday together every year, met up regularly for dinner/drinks etc. So anyway one night about 2 years ago she asked to stay over after dinner as she had drunk too much to drive home. I said sure, and she then got very very very drunk and told me all about a very abusive first marriage to a much older man whe she was very young, and said she knows she's prickly and aggressive and hates herself for it, but just over reacts to things after years of being made to feel like shit. Plus being made to abort a pregnancy, sleep with his mates etc etc. Grim stuff. A few days later she came over to apologise for 'bending my ear' but said she was glad she'd told someone, but no-one else knew as we had all met her when she had escaped the abuse, and she'd appreciate it if I did not share as she was so ashamed. So I haven't. Since then her behaviour has got worse and one by one the other friends have slowly dropped her. Mainly because she is just so abusive to them. (And me!) She has started popping over more and more, telling me more stuff I don't want to hear, telling me how valuable my friendship is to her as 'I'm the only one who knows and understands why I'm like this'. She also rang once after a suicide attempt and I called an ambulance for her but no-one knows about that either. I have told her to get profesioanl help and she is open to a CMHT but says they are useless. Just asks her if she wants to top herself today and if she says no they go, and if she says yes, they send her to A&E and she gets sent home from there. Help lines re Domestic Abuse did not help her either. I don't think she is being deliberately manipulative re suicide. I think she is genuinely on the edge and everyone says 'if you aren't coping reach out'. Which is what she is doing. So despite never liking her in the first place, I am now her only friend! And she is leaning on me a LOT. I've told her I can't help her, she needs professional help and she says just being there and listening to her is helping. She literally has NO other friends now. I'm still friends with all the others, and we no longer include her in anything when we meet up, which she tells me she understands but is saddended by. I feel I get zero from this friendship really. But I just don't know how to say no to her when she says she needs to talk. And I genuinely feel very sorry for her. In between 'being a listening ear' she is still a grumpy cow to me. But she always apologises so I'd feel churlish using any of her bad behaviour as a reason to drop her. I;d happily do that if soneone else as still there for her, but being the 'last friend standing' feels a huge responsibility that I don't want.