The Toxic Friend.

We've all got one... The friend who calls you six times a day, usually with a new and different crisis (though rest assured each is as traumatic as the last), the friend who can't tell you that you look hot in your new dress but preens themselves in front of your mirror and throws a tantrum if you don't throw them a compliment, the friend who has to know what you're doing 24/7 lest you be establishing a friendship with someone else.

Don't get us wrong, these friends are friends for a reason; they take you out to the best bars and clubs, party with you, bitch about your ex's new girlfriend, stalk said girlfriend relentlessly via facebook and report back with a "don't worry, she's hideous, he's totally in denial over loosing you." Of course they're fun (we know you're not all stupid or self torturing enough to get nothing out of a friendship and act as a proverbial punching bag for these people) but none the less, there comes a point where they're leaving whining voicemails on your phone; "why won't you pick up? Are you mad at me? Where are you? I really need you and you're not by your phone." And you're deliberately avoiding your blackberry messenger in case they see their blackberry message to you has been 'read'.

At FAD we like to call these people our 'toxic friends', and believe us we've had a fair few. And we've come up with a few ideas on how to deal with them.

You can go the 'tough love' route and tell them to suck it up that no, the fact he hasn't returned their call is not because he's busy but instead because turning up at his door at 3am marginally freaked him out.

You can lie and say you're out of the country (although thanks to facebook this is an increasingly difficult one to follow through on).

You can cut them out completely, hiding in the toilets when you see them, changing your phone number and affecting a "oh wow, no I didn't know you'd been trying to get hold of me for 6 weeks. Oh whoops must dash to my manicure appointment."

Or you can be honest. You can say look, you're a great friend most of the time but you need to realise that we're not living in a re inaction of Gossip Girl or the OC (the good season, before Ryan got all psycho and brooding) and surprisingly I do have a life outside of our friendship and I'd like to be able to live that a little.

But then again.... Knowing the Toxic Friend they'll probably turn into a wailing mess and bring it back round to how awful their lives are.