I recently had a situation with a good friend who got just too much into my business, then started dictating to me. I had to break off the friendship, which I hated to do as this person is going through a very difficult time right now and needs support. After a break of several weeks, I'm trying to reestablish the friendship on a much more distant basis. I hate having to break friendships--I always try to keep them in some form. And I really dislike having to be very direct and very firm--the "hit them between the eyes" approach. So, I guess that I, too, would like to hear of others' ways of handling such situations.