For nearly a year, one reader has sidestepped a cherished friendship to avoid entering an expensive social circle. Miss Manners offers insight on how honesty and kindness can bring old friends back together without straining anyone’s wallet.

A longtime companion is watching someone close drift into joblessness and solitude. Despite gentle, persistent efforts to help, that guidance continues to go unheeded, raising questions about the future of their friendship.

A reader reaches out to “Dear Annie” for help with a friend’s sarcastic remarks. They describe these quips as “little darts” that feel impossible to ignore. The story illustrates how subtle jabs can strain even the closest of friendships.

For one reader, opening up about anxiety and depression led to an unexpected outcome when friends failed to reach out. In this advice column by R. Eric Thomas, we see how a lack of support can intensify feelings of isolation.

Two longtime friends rekindle their 40-year bond after a 10-year hiatus. Despite living in different states, they chat on the phone multiple times a day, showing that distance is no match for close companionship.

Friendships can face unexpected strains when communication becomes one-sided. In an advice column by R. Eric Thomas, one reader wonders if it is still worth pursuing a connection with a friend who only reached out after a year of silence.

Friends drift for many reasons, a truth one writer reveals in a heartfelt plea to “Dear Annie.” Instead of anger, this letter shows that confronting a fading friendship can stir up sadness—and a poignant sense of acceptance.

Over a casual night out in Columbus, Tyler Reaves shrugs off the real delight he takes in his everyday life when speaking to his single friend, Brian Schur. This gentle withholding of happiness adds an unexpected layer to their friendship, revealing how life circumstances can shift the balance between honest conversation and empathy.

A bond stretching back more than three decades has been shaken by post-election tensions when one friend admitted difficulty spending time with “people like me.” In a letter to “Dear Annie,” the writer grapples with whether political differences have made this once-solid friendship unsalvageable.

A decades-long bond unravels in the most unexpected way when a best friend of 50 years reveals she stayed in the relationship only as a favor to her friend’s mother. Dear Abby weighs in on the grief, questions, and loss that follow this heartbreaking twist in a lifelong connection.