Toxic Friendships

Toxic Friendship. It is a very sensitive topic to most people. Although many people may have had thoughts regarding their friends’ actions, the hardest part is to come to terms with yourself and even question whether or not your friend is ”toxic”? The easiest way to know if your part of a toxic friendship is to understand what makes a toxic friend. A toxic friend is someone who is robbing your positive energy and taking all of your emotional space to make themselves feel better.

Who is Most Likely to have a Toxic Friendship?

Women are more likely to put up with a toxic friendship than men. Especially very empathetic women. Men are more able to distance themselves both physically and mentally. Women are typically more emotionally available so they are more prone to these negative attacks. People with higher self esteem and clear boundaries won’t experience toxic friendships as much because they wont allow a toxic person to dig their nails into them easily.

Why is keeping a toxic friendship actually a big deal?

Keeping a toxic friend is a big deal because it leads us to swallow our feelings, make excuses for their actions, and convince ourselves to just be nice. For an empath, it can severely affect their health. Sometimes it’s hard to put a toxic person down, ultimately we start to feel guilty for feeling annoyed. With that being said, having a close group of friends is super important to one’s health and having a friend who only wants what’s worse for you or makes you feel less than are damaging to one’s health.

How to tell if friend is toxic:

You feel like they want less than what’s best for you

You feel like your energy is robbed most times your with that person

You sometimes avoid being with this person even though they are your friend

You are constantly gaslighted, berated, guilted into doing things for them

Your gut tells you that this relationship isn’t good for you on an emotional, mental, or spiritual level

So, should you just cut a toxic person out?

In order to maintain stable health and relationships the ultimate choice is to cut the toxic friend out. This shouldn’t happen too quickly. Be open and honest with your friend, look for ways to repair and strengthen your friendship. Not all friendships can be saved, not all people are open to hearing your pain and some people may not even want to work on or change the way they treat you which would be someone you need to cut ties with. Sometimes, our toxic friends are actually karmic partnerships that we are experiencing again. Once that karma is completed, the relationship will have served its purpose. If this toxic friend is open to working on themselves that will help you see their true colors and can further grow into a healthy friendship. It’s very important to realize that you can’t change the other person. You can, however, change you show up and respond to them which in turn changes the relationship.