Not sure if this is the right place for this, so apologies if it isn't in advance.
I have a friend who has a very negative affect on my mental well-being. We fell out, and reconnected, and strange things have started to creep into out friendship.
She became self-obsessed, to a huge extent, even if she met me when I was with a friend or family member of mine, she would open the conversation by asking them an opinion about her/her life, or she would draw the conversation to her.
She was quite arrogant - Talking about how rich she is. Talking about her own earning potential very aggressively with no lead up, snapping/smirking about her salary if someone seemed less than in awe of her. She also mentioned friends who she likes to feel one up to.
After this, she became massively competitive. If she met someone who had something she wanted she would make a huge fuss of telling them that she had things to be jealous of or sometimes she would play down what they have in a dismissive way.
She can't stand it when other people are doing well, and if I dare to mention that someone is doing well for themselves, she has to rip them apart and convince me how awful their lives are, and how I am mistaken and that person is not to be looked at positively. If someone seems happy with a new boyfriend, she has to find away to focus on the negative. edited by MNHQ AT OP's request Another example is when someone talks about someone else doing well in life, my friend really loses her temper, and goes on a rant about how and why the person has a negative life, and all the good things mentioned could be countered with bad things, all while red in the face and scowling at whoever said it.
After 2 years of this, I feel really negative about this friendship. The problem is, the effect she has on me is quite extreme. She brings out the absolute worst in me, and to be totally honest I now feel competitive with her, I'm really not a competitive person, but she inspires this not very pleasant side of me (I know I can't really blame her) and I am also always on edge waiting to be attacked/provoked by her.
In all honesty, even seeing her posts on social media has a really bad effect on me. We don't see each other much, but she considers me to be a close friend so I would feel really harsh cutting off contact, but I really really really (!) want to avoid the chance that she might get in contact or I might see a post and it might cause some negative effect or feeling in me, leading me to have the urge to delete and block her social media and even messaging services, even temporarily.
I guess what I want advice on is any of the following - is this too drastic for someone who has not done anything that wrong, but who affects my mental well-being negatively?
If someone had a negative effect on your mental well-being, would you cut them out?
In her position, would you want to hear that the friendship wasn't good from my side and that I felt it was negatively affecting me?
Do you have and advice on how else I could handle this without deleting / blocking to avoid her contacting me?
Really sorry this is so long, and many thanks for reading/replying in advance.