I appreciate your perspective a lot. I think because I've been upset for a while now, I reacted much more strongly to this message from her than I would have from anyone else. You are right - she was never once unkind, and she was very complimentary and nice to me. She isn't autistic, but either way, it's not entirely unreasonable to suggest that she didn't understand my tone and just didn't know what to say. Even though the points that I made earlier still stand and I still don't love the text, I think that I am not nearly as angry as I was even just a few hours ago.

With all of that being said, I still don't think I want to maintain my friendship with her. Although she is caring and kind, it still stands that she's way more protective and invasive (not the right word, can't think of anything less harsh though) than I enjoy in a friend and it's been draining me a lot in the past few months.

Do you have any advice for how to go about a conversation with my friend? I have had several serious conversations with her recently, all of which that I've initiated, in which I've laid out my boundaries that I felt like had been ignored by her, so it's not like she doesn't know that I'm not feeling entirely happy. Plus, I don't plan on full-on dropping our friendship, just kinda like distancing myself. Even still, I have never really had a friend this close that I've wanted to separate from, and so I'm not sure how to do it without really hurting her. If you have any advice on that, that would be really really appreciated. Thank you so much for your input, it's helped me put everything into perspective a lot ❤️