I have had a friend for many years whom I have found myself pulling further and further away from in recent months/years. She has a number of mental and physical health conditions. I am finding it increasingly difficult to unpick what are genuinely diagnosed medical problems and what has been exaggerated/fabricated (I have been to medical appointments with her before and can definitely see that there is a big leap between what she views to be her diagnosed conditions and what her doctors think). I feel that she enjoys being miserable and does little to help herself. She frequently alludes to 'traumas' she has suffered in her past that I have no recollection of occurring at the time. I just feel that she lives in a world of fantasy where she is continually persecuted. Doctors never believe her and everyone in her life is abusive towards her. She expects me to have the same negative world view and constantly makes any small concerns I might have her own problem and tries to turn it into some life changing event. I feel terrible as she has small children to whom I feel I have some responsibility and we have been very close in the past. I have tried to minimise contact but for every message I send her, I get upwards of 40 or 50 attempts at contact. I feel that being honest with her may end in her doing something very dramatic (such as harming herself) and will also end in a smear campaign against me. She seems to have a lot of influence over many people who are taken in by her drama.
I sound like a really dreadful person, don't I? She needs support and I am just trying to abandon her.