

There are friends in our life that it can be safe to do a little bit of “venting” with about other people or situations in your life, but a toxic friend is not one of them! Sometimes, the toxic nature of a friendship will include them gossiping or wanting to drag you into their antics or their drama. You are worthy and you are wonderful and you shouldn’t ever let a toxic friend get into your head to the point where you think you aren’t.įocus on your own self-esteem and getting that validation from inside yourself, rather than other people, and you’ll be on your way to building up an emotional barrier of sorts to letting them get to you. Get involved in hobbies, sports, or clubs that don’t involve them and surround yourself with new people, or simply focus on just yourself by taking yourself on fun vacations or outings, buying yourself a new outfit, or starting up a practice like mindfulness or meditation to build your emotionally stability. This takes a lot of energy and purposeful work, but it’s totally possible.

#Friends corner dramas how to
Part of learning how to deal with toxic friends is really figuring out how to retain your own sense of self-worth and not being dragged down by them. Toxic friends can absolutely tank your self-esteem. Boost Your Own Self-Esteem Away from Them It can also act sort of like a coach in your corner, cheering you on as you detach yourself from these people, and you’ll learn a lot about yourself along the way. Having a third party sit down with you and reflect back what you’re saying to them about the friendship can make you have so many realizations and “duh” moments that would have been impossible to have on your own. A lot of people think therapy is just for people with severe mental health issues, but it’s absolutely not! It’s for everyone! Therapy can be a fantastic way to navigate the waters of a toxic friendship and learn how to deal with toxic friends and toxic people in general. It’s not your fault that you have toxic friends, but it is your responsibility to handle the situation from your end in a way that preserves your own mental health because they definitely aren’t looking out for you. They may get the hint and go on to other friendships, but even if the process takes awhile, you’ll feel more confident and secure in yourself the more you detach from them. You’ll want to start by just not being the one to initiative conversations or plans, and when they do reach out, you don’t have to respond right away or agree to meet up with them constantly. It can be hard with long-term friends to immediately cut them out of your lives, and in this case you can try the approach of distancing yourself slowly. Like we mentioned before, a toxic friendship is a poisonous one for your life and mental health, and if this isn’t a one-off issue but a constantly toxic situation, you need to get out. The ultimate goal of a toxic friendship is actually removing yourself from it.

It takes guts to do this, but is one of the best ways to lead to change in your own perception of the relationship, if nothing else, because you’ll soon be aware of just how often your friends acts in a toxic way if you’re always bringing up the behavior when it happens rather than letting it build up. I have friends so we can build each other up, not tear each other down, and I feel that’s what your comment just now did.” Sometimes, it’s easy for a toxic friend to gaslight us into feeling like maybe we’re the crazy or toxic ones, but if you continually reference their behavior when it happens, it’s harder for them to wiggle out of.įor instance, if a friend is making disparaging comments about your clothes that they think are “funny jokes,” stand up for yourself in that moment and say, “Hey, it actually really hurts my feelings when you say things like that even if you mean it as a joke. Whether a friend is making you feel self-conscious because they keep making jokes about your shirt or they’re constantly complaining about everything, take the opportunity in the moment to call them out on it. Call Them Out on Their Behavior in the Moment
