Dear Prudence,
My best friend of four years is in an abusive relationship. She calls me on a weekly basis crying about how terribly her boyfriend treats her, but she refuses to leave. I have invested countless hours and sacrificed time with family, other friends, and my own relationship to try to help her leave with no success. It is draining. She has isolated herself from almost all friends and activities besides me. We recently got into an argument because her boyfriend is going away on a bachelor weekend. Knowing he would be unfaithful and unresponsive as he often is on these trips, she has put the responsibility on me to “distract” her while he is gone. The problem is that I already have plans with friends and family that she refuses to attend. She is telling me it needs to just be me and her and that I should be accommodating to her. I am upset and resentful that it has gotten to this point. I don’t want to push her away, but I think she is acting ridiculous and think it’s a shame she expects me to isolate myself with her so she doesn’t have to think about the trouble her boyfriend is getting into. What do I do? Tell my friend to suck it up and risk losing her when she doesn’t dump her boyfriend? Or keep allowing her to vent her frustrations and waste my time after years of not doing anything to help herself?