The Rules of Love, 3rd Edition

RULE 9

Choose friends you can trust

When you’re going through a break-up – or have just been through one – you’re very vulnerable. So you need to think carefully about who you confide in. Not all friends have your best interests at heart, even when they think they do, and you’ll be more readily swayed now than you usually would.

I’ll give you an example here. I knew a woman who was splitting up with her husband after many years of marriage. She had a group of three or four women friends who were very sympathetic, having all recently been through splits and divorces of their own. However, these splits had left the friends quite bitter and convinced that all men were bastards. So of course their advice to her reflected this. They encouraged her ...