I have a friend who always tries to make me feel guilty about not calling her back, not picking up the phone when she calls (usually I'm not home), and not seeing her as much as she thinks I should. How can I handle this? It's starting to make me want to drop her as a friend!

-------------------------------Miss Emily's advice------------------------

People will get away with controlling your life if you allow it. And people can get away with a lot of bad behavior, if others don't speak up. It takes courage to set a friend straight, but you don't have a friendship if you can't be honest with her in this matter. This should be a 50/50 relationship, and not where she can hold you hostage out of some ill-conceived guilt-trip because you have a life and she doesn't. It's amazing how someone (even as insecure as your friend) can start acting like a normal person once she (or he) is called on their possessiveness, and irrational demands. Set her straight, in a nice way, or this will continue -- as you well know. Her guilt trip is something that you accept, and she's happy to dish out. All you're doing is living your life, and realizing that she has no right to continue down this path. If you lose her as a friend after laying it on the line, well, it's better for you in the long-run because she was less a friend to you than a person who was only concerned about her needs (neediness). Enable her no more, my dear.