Before you write me off for thinking this excess of friends was because I was an especially brilliant or lovely person, rest assured that was not the case. I was as useless as the next overstretched woman when it came to last minute cancellations, delayed text responses, occasional no-shows and plenty of bemoaning how busy I was when I did arrive.

Yet a straw poll of the Stylist office finds this is a very common problem among my age group.

A combination of university friends, first job friends, work friends, home friends and random friends - not to mention virtual friends - can combine to a feeling of total overwhelm.

And I must also explain excess of friends didn’t mean I wasn’t lonely.

While I may have appeared busy and popular on the outside, it was only during a tough time in my personal life that I realised that the majority of these friendships were empty. There were only a small handful of people who I wanted to pick up the phone to, who I wanted to cry into the arms of, who I could truly call my friend. My huge circle had left me feeling overwhelmingly, horribly, desperately lonely.

Unsurprisingly – though I would say wrongly - it is not ‘the done thing’ to break off contact with friends in the way we would, say, a boyfriend or a bad boss.

And so it is that we go through life picking up lots of great new people along the way, but at no point skimming leftovers or bad apples off the pile.

Because there will be bad apples. Whether it’s the occasional undermining comment, constant negativity or full-scale bitchiness; unless you are incredibly lucky, there will be people in your friendship circle who make you feel bad.

Toxic friendships can be the most draining, exhausting relationship you have and can take time and energy away from the ones that make you feel light and clever and funny and special.

So I asked myself one simple question ‘Does this person make me feel happy?’

Could a friend cull be good for your health?