When you are involved in friendship, you are developing a deeper connection and relationship with that person. You know each other well, and you enjoy their company and companionship. The value of great friendships is immeasurable, and they are rare gems to find.
In contrast to great friends, we know that toxic friends can also exist. They are easier to find and much harder to get rid of if your self esteem is shaken.
The more you are involved in a toxic friendship, the more you will be stressed out and will have a dreadful feeling of going down.
Toxic friends definitely have their share of lowering your self esteem. Over time you will feel like you are just a used piece of furniture.
With them, you are in an unsupportive group and that is just the tip of the iceberg. It is basically an abusive relationship. They don’t support you, you can’t get your point across, and they simply don’t feel you.
When you want to remember them as a person you are rushed with negative memories and a bad taste in your mouth of how you are feeling about them. After you had an encounter with them you were somewhat worse than before.
With an abusive relationship like this, it is very hard to keep your self esteem high if you are constantly with that kind of person. If you are constantly belittled, downgraded, and in some way insulted then it is a defined sign that you simply are not happy with this relationship. Nobody deserves to be treated that way and you shouldn’t be in that type of friendship anyway.
Toxic friends can be a life lesson for you. Once your self esteem is attacked and downsized you have to keep fighting and get that lesson embedded in your mind so it does not happen again.
Self loving does actually have their own consequences. If you want to read more about them, I have written an post about that, just click here.
How to Stop Toxic Friends Bringing Down your Self Esteem?
The first step in stopping something is to fully know it is there and it is happening. In terms of toxic friends, you must spot toxic behavior and a feeling of uneasiness is gotten into you. If you don’t feel like having that kind of friends you need to stay out of them
The easiest way to get out of this situation is to cut any contact with that person. Simply don’t talk to them anymore. You don’t need to explain yourself. Give yourself time to heal and think about it all.
Remove yourself from that person’s space and be at peace with yourself. The best guidance will be your own gut feeling. To get that feeling you have to be again in touch with your own inner self.
By following your gut instinct you will know if that person is toxic for you and if doesn’t support you or you are having great time with them. Take your time to recover. It is essential to be in touch with your feelings and take it from there.
It is not easy to get out of that kind of friendship but a hard and precise cut to that relationship is something that you must do for yourself. You don’t owe anybody an apology if they provoked and insulted you in the first place.
Take back yourself in self development, involve yourself in some self improvement activities. We have written some ideas if you don’t have any at the moment check them here. And if you don’t feel like doing anything at the moment just chilling and watching movies we have a recommended list of movies to cheer you up, you can click here.
If that toxic friendship was the only friend you have closer it is time to move on and to find better friends. Being in solitude is good for your recovery and it is a good start. Once you are ready you can engage in more social activities to get to know more people and eventually find a friend.
How to Spot a Toxic Friends?
Other than following your gut feeling there are a couple of traits that are similar to every toxic friend.
You are doubting in their intentions – Whenever they want to surprise you or not, even after a time you are not relaxed in their presence. You are feeling something is odd or that they want something from you. Mostly they are not open about their intentions and when asked they usually divert the conversation.
They are not honest – If you have common friends it will be easier to discover their lies. Liars often can’t keep up with all those lies and they are simply caught. Even if you personally caught them they will still insist that they are speaking the truth.
This is their most vicious trait. They will try to manipulate and lie to you in order to get what they want.
Not even trying to help – Although they might pretend at first to do just that, oftentimes that is just a facade. They want to position themself to not help anybody but to receive help from everybody. Usually, they manipulate you in a way that you are not fully aware of what is going on.
By the time you figure that out, and when approached because of that, they will find an excuse and put the guilt on you.
They don’t accept their own fault – The craziest thing about toxic friends is they perceived themself as righteous, and as good people. The thought of being wrong doesn’t occur to them. You simply cant argue with that.
You will lose time, patience and in the end the willpower to be involved with that person. There are some traits of toxicity in most of people, but really toxic person is not even trying to control that but to amplify that.
How Friendship can make a Difference in your Life and Self Esteem?
Part of being human is to have another human next to you. Simply put we are social creatures. Having a partner or a close friend in your life can bring a lot of joy and happiness.
You will have a sense of belonging and ultimately a purpose in life. Helping your friend out and vice versa can also have many healthy benefits too. A study from Columbia University studied exactly that.
Great friendship enriches our lives, also contributes to our self esteem and life satisfaction overall.
When tackling new endeavors a friend can give you a helping hand and necessary encouragement to push forward. They can also be from time to time a great mentor.
If you cherish your friend you can devote yourself to them in their time of need. You can also rely on them to do exactly the same.
You will also tend to engage in more social activities and activities in general, being always on the move. When looking from the side, your energy will respond to your friend’s energy and they will feed from one another. Great friendship is a gift that keeps on giving.
In the end to have a healthy relationship with someone means that you have a great treasure in your life
Thanks for reading, have a nice day and take care.
