Be honest about why you’re tired of a friend. Sometimes it’s them. Sometimes you changed and haven’t said it out loud yet.

When a friendship starts to feel heavy, the easiest explanation is that the other person got worse. Sometimes that is accurate. Often the change is in you, and saying so means admitting you want different things now, which feels like betrayal and is mostly growth. Blaming them is cheaper and leaves you confused about the guilt.

Get the honest sentence straight in your own head first, even if you never say it aloud. Then choose: a real conversation, or less time without the cold shoulder. Fading on somebody while telling yourself they changed is the one option that hurts everybody.