Toxic Friendships

Suzanne Degges-White, PhD, LPC, LMHC, NCC, is professor and chair of the Department of Counseling, Adult and Higher Education at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. She is a licensed counselor and her research interests include intimate relationships (including friendship and motherhood). She is the author of Friends Forever: How Girls and Women Forge Lasting Relationships and Mothers and Daughters: Living, Loving, and Learning over a Lifetime. She is a featured blogger on the Psychology Today website and has edited four books on counseling in the community and in schools. Judy Pochel Van Tieghem has over three decades of experience in reporting, writing, and researching for various publications. She was awarded the Illinois Associated Press Spot News Reporter of the Year honor in 1984 and was a winner of the Kenan Business Fellowship, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1990. She currently resides in the Chicago suburban area, where she works as a freelance reporter.

Acknowledgments
Preface

Part I: Understanding the Need for Social Connection
1: The Need for Community
2: Friendship Patterns from Girlhood through Older Adulthood

Part II:The Rules of Friendship and their Role in Relationships
3: It’s a Matter of Trust
4: Just the Way You Are
5: Any Friend of Hers is a Friend of Mine
6: Being There
7: A Friend in Need
8: Keep the Friendship Favor Balance in Check
9: Defending Your Honor
10: Bring Joy to Your Friends
11: Criticism is Not Okay
12: Jealousy is Not Okay
13: A Rule-by-Rule Guide for Moms

Part III:Toxic Environments outside the Home
14: Soccer Moms and Carpool Queens
15: Church Group and Civic Group Friends
16: Down the Street and On the Job

Part IV: Taking Stock and Cutting Back
17: Playing by the Rules
18: Writing Your Own Rules
19: Taking Stock and Letting Go

Bibliography