46 Entitled Friends Whose Audacity Knew No Bounds

Writing for Psychology Today, Forrest Talley, Ph.D., confirms something most of us blessed with a great circle of friends probably already know: healthy friendships make our lives better. We can have fun with them, share our worries with them, depend on them—and they do the same for us. But great friends do more than just bring joy into our lives. As Talley explains further, healthy friendships also boost our immune systems and may even help us live longer.

However, as some of us might also be painfully aware, not every friendship is healthy. And if healthy relationships improve our health and aging, some researchers have posited that the opposite may also be true for our “negative social ties.”

And, honestly, we don’t even need to analyze this research to draw the same conclusion: there are simply some people we might have once considered friends that we’d be far better off without. The ones who are constantly creating drama, the ones who drain our energy, the ones who make us feel bad about ourselves and leave us feeling anxious. And entitled friends are often guilty of all of this—and perhaps more.

Verywell Mind defines entitlement as a personality trait where someone is convinced that they are owed special treatment or recognition despite not having earned either. Entitled people often believe that the world owes them something, but they do not put in any effort in return.

That imbalance, of taking without giving back, is what makes entitlement so corrosive in a friendship specifically. In most healthy relationships, there is an unspoken understanding that both parties will show up for each other. Sometimes you show up for me, and sometimes I show up for you. The help is reciprocal, and it’s given freely and without expectation. So there’s no need to keep score—there’s simply trust that it’ll even out eventually.

But entitled friends go against this unspoken standard. Instead of viewing friendship as a two-way street built on mutual care, they often treat it as a source of endless favors, attention, and support, and they don’t feel obligated to return the same kindness.

And this isn’t an accident or just a misunderstanding. It’s more than that. Because entitled friends think they are inherently owed something, they don’t believe this standard should apply to them at all. So they’re the type of friends who expect you to drop everything when they need you but don’t offer you the same favor when the tables turn. And when you go out of your way to help them, they also show you no gratitude.

This isn’t because they didn’t notice the effort you put into doing so. It’s because, whether they realize it or not, they didn’t believe they needed to. To them, your help wasn’t a gift—it was simply what was due to them. That’s also why they can react with frustration or even anger when they’re told “no.” Since they genuinely believe they’re owed something from you, setting a perfectly reasonable boundary can lead to them feeling like you’ve wronged them.

And that’s the rub that makes the actions of an entitled friend sting in a way no rude stranger ever could. There’s a big difference between a stranger who cuts you off in line and a friend who treats a boundary as an affront and your time, energy, and loyalty as something they’re entitled to.

The stranger doesn’t know you and doesn’t owe you much more than human decency—they may have failed to notice you, but there’s no real betrayal in it. A “friend,” on the other hand, may have noticed exactly how much you give and decided that was simply the baseline.

Your friendship no doubt didn’t start this way. Sure, every friendship has its rough patches, but somewhere along the way, small favors slowly became expectations. A last-minute request meant you were now always available. Covering brunch once meant you would always be the one to pay. In other words, those “rough patches” turned into a pattern, where somehow you were constantly expected to give, while your so-called friend simply continued to take.

The trouble is, this happens so gradually, you often don’t notice the imbalance at first. Not until you’ve reached the point where you’re exhausted and resentful.

So what do experts suggest when it comes to dealing with such entitled people? Once you can recognize the signs, clinical psychologist Dr. Monica Johnson recommends meeting entitled behavior with a mix of firmness and empathy.

Firmness starts with being assertive about your needs rather than staying quiet to keep the peace. It also entails setting boundaries you’re actually willing to enforce with real consequences. Johnson also advises validating the person’s feelings without caving to their demands. Acknowledging their frustration while still holding your ground keeps the conversation from tipping into a power struggle over who’s “right.”

That’s also where the empathy comes in. Johnson notes that entitlement often stems from insecurity rather than genuine ill intent, and understanding that can soften how you approach the conversation. But empathy only works alongside those boundaries, not instead of them—it should change your tone, not your limits.

Finally, Johnson points out that managing this dynamic is genuinely draining, which is why she stresses the importance of self-care and leaning on others for support along the way. That could be a friend, a family member, or a therapist.

But if you’d rather commiserate with strangers on the internet who get it, perhaps all you need is a subreddit like r/EntitledPeople.