(By Holly Ashworth)
I have a friend and I have come to really like her, but she started to trust me with secrets about how she has sex with older guys and is getting into dangerous prescription drugs. I want to help her see that she’s going down a bad path, but I don’t want her to hate me for it. I don’t know how to be a good friend to her! What do I do?
Sometimes, the best way to be a good friend is to risk losing the friendship completely. It sounds crazy but it’s true. If you want to do the right thing for your friend, you have got to risk having her hate you in order to give her the advice she needs to hear.
Tell her exactly how you feel. Get it all out. And if she refuses to listen or she just blows you off, talk to her parents about what has been going on. The alternative is sitting back and watching, while she endangers herself, and that’s just not an option.
She will probably hate you…at least for a little while. But hopefully, she will see that you were trying to help. If she doesn’t realise that, then her friendship probably wasn’t worth preserving anyway.
One of the facts of life, and of growing up is that sometimes the best decisions are not always the easiest to make. But should that stop you from making them? I am sure you will answer No!
