Tom, I agree with your sentiments … with some reservations. If the friend is suffering from a mental illness or an addiction, simply being there as a peer, or confronting the individual about his behavior, will have little effect. In fact, your continued friendship may actually delay his decision to change. If you have had no prior exposure to, or training about, people behaving as your friend does, it is important to educate yourself as much as possible and to establish very strong boundaries with the friend … otherwise you are likely to become an enabler or another victim … or both.