<human>: Throwaway account, to be sure. I'll try to be succinct.

I (male, mid-twenties) have a friend (female, mid-twenties). We've been friends for a decade or more and she is like a sister to me.

For several months, she's been stuck in a string of bad luck. A breakup with her longterm SO, a lot of bad dates thereafter, financial problems, family problems, self-image problems, and so on. And for every episode of misfortune, my SO and I have been there to help and offer advice.

We do it because we love her, but it's becoming very exhausting and frustrating for us. When she and her SO split up, we had to leave in the middle of the night to help her move out. We told her we thought it was a bad idea to start dating again right away, but she ignored us and did it anyway -- but when none of her dates worked out, we had to pick up the pieces every time. When her money ran out, we had to loan her some... and then again, and again. Just the other week, she was going through some random crisis, and my SO and I got roped into bringing her along on our date night (and I had to pay for her meal).

It's seems like it's something new every week, but this past week was perhaps the worst of it: a friend of hers passed away suddenly. She's, understandably, a wreck about it. I feel terrible for what she's going through.

But we've been avoiding her.

I feel worse about it than my SO (he's equating it to "the girl who cried wolf"), and he reasons that she has others she can turn to -- her family, her other friends, her new SO. I'm inclined to agree with him, but I feel bad about avoiding my friend in her time of need ... even though I am burnt out by the expectation that I will put everything on hold to take care of her.

So, collective wisdom of Reddit, am I being a shit friend for avoiding her? Are we justified in taking a break from all the drama? Do you have advice on how to proceed in this situation?

Can you give me a shortened version of the text?
<bot>: Friend's had shit luck (some her fault, some not). New crisis every week for months. Tired of taking care of her. Something worse than usual happened. I've been avoid-y. Am I an asshole?