If you want to keep your friend, there's things you could do together such as - traditional dancing - time spent together when you both get excercise and his metabolism gets a good boost - movies - you can watch something and don't have to listen to him for too long.

but I agree - no one wants to be dragged into a black hole. dumping on others is counter productive form of emotional release that achieves nothing - I have passed on louise hay's book "you can heal your life" to a friend who was depressed - its a good book to challenge anyone with a victim mentality, and to help them find ways of empowerment without blame.

good luck

freda