We all want friends: lots and lots of fun, interesting, supportive and empathetic friends who know your Starbucks order off by heart and share the same Netflix faves list. That’s the goal, right? But what’s the reality? Sometimes you just have to cut some friendships loose as they become toxic.
Lauren Sapala, a self-confessed intuitive introvert, recently shared her thoughts at Introvert, Dear on a situation that left her feeling out of place and how she needed to distance herself from some friendships.
“I could hear the coldness in their voices. I could feel the dismissiveness, the judgment, the separation they felt from the people they were discussing.” Read more
Breaking up with toxic friends
For what ever reason you find a frienship becoming toxic; be it judgement, abuse (physical or mental), differing ideals or heading down a path that you don’t wish to follow, being true to yourself and knowing when to cut the ties is the first step. Being able to distance yourself can be the hard part, especially if those friends are intertwined in your working life, family or community.
How have you dealt with a toxic friendship? Share your story in the comments below.
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Written by Julie Scanlon
Julie is a regular Her World contributor and our MVP. Her hobbies include laughing uncontrollably at her own jokes, annoying her family by asking questions about movie plots, and never taking anything too seriously. She speaks a little Spanish and a lot of Yorkshire.
Favourite motto to live by: “It ain’t nothing but a thing”
I have had some toxic relationships, but for me they were people where I had to make a lot of the effort. Once I stopped making the effort, they dropped away. Now if I see them, it’s quite good. There’s a good catch up and I really like seeing them. But I’m not feeling the pressure to try and get an event going for their benefit.
I have done a clean out of toxic Facebook friends who only talked negative behind my back. As far as I’m concerned they don’t need to see what my family and I do anymore it’s just not worth it it’s my page and I will post what I want.
I don’t have any toxic friends – I have a pretty small circle of close friends and deleted my old profile on Facebook as it was just full of so much crap. My partner and I have a shared account now which only has 10 friends 🙂 I do have a good friend who has just been through a very toxic “friendship” and has disestablished herself from that now and is feeling much better 🙂