A new survey has revealed that 84 percent of women put up with so-called "toxic friends", who are self-absorbed, emotionally draining, critical or backstabbing.
Men did not fare much better, with three-quarters admitting to having had such a friendship.
Sixty-five percent of those polled complained of having a self-obsessed friend, and 59 percent accused their closest acquaintances of being emotional "vampires", draining all their energy reserves.
The poll, of 18,000 women and 4,000 men by Today.com and Self magazine, found just over half had an over-critical friend, while 45 percent reported backstabbing behaviour and barbed comments.
Thirty-seven percent of people questioned also admitted to being turned off by friends who were unreliable or flaky.
Though a third admitted that they would end a friendship with someone who was untrustworthy, 83 percent said that they had let a friendship drag on longer than it should have done because the prospect of "breaking up" was too daunting.
"The reason it's hard to dump a toxic friend is the same reason people stay in all kinds of dysfunctional relationships," the Daily Mail quoted Dr Gail Saltz, associate professor of psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital, as saying.
"There's something in it that you find compelling or familiar," she added. (ANI)
