NonnykoliThey are your friend and you could take anything from them but how do you know that some of the things they do constitute signs of toxic friendship?
A toxic friendship is very bad in that while you are doing things for the collective good of both parties, the other is just making things all about them and not for the group.
You never experience any kind of empathy or support in a toxic friendship.
When they dismiss your issues or refuse to answer your messages or support requests, you may feel completely neglected.
In other words, they don’t support you when you most need a friend.
In most cases, there are so many signs of toxic friendship as exhibited by your friends but you just do not see them as such.
Thankfully, you are going to find them out and rethink your friendship with them after reading this article.
In this write-up, we are going to discuss some 10 major signs of toxic friendship that you may not be aware of or think are any cause for concern.
Friendship is good only when everything that you do hinge on the collective good of each person and not only one person.
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Toxic friends are always self-centred and do not do things that benefit the other person who is their friend.
Toxic friends routinely start arguments and create a commotion.
You might frequently feel resentful, offended, or guilty when you are with a certain friend.
These feelings could be vital signs of toxic friendship.
10 Vital Signs of Toxic Friendships
It is not easy to identify a fake friend as they will always try to pretend in order to achieve what they intend to achieve, but no matter what they do, they are always going to be glaring signs and it is your responsibility to be very observant to see them.
To give you a headstart, we have sampled ten signs of toxic friendship that you should take note of.
Signs of Toxic Friendships: 1. They Always Portray Themselves As Victims.
When they always make themselves perpetual victims, it is one of the sure signs of toxic friendship that you should not ignore.
To them, they can do no wrong to you and it is always you trying to do something to them.
At least in their eyes, nothing can go right.
It seems like toxic buddies are constantly experiencing problems.
Even if the issues exist, they hardly ever make an effort to regulate their responses or make things better.
They frequently appear dependent and helpless as a result, which makes you feel worried, annoyed, or even resentful.
2. They Influence You Through Peer Pressure to Do Things You Don’t Want To Do
A true friend respects your choices; if they influence you into doing things against your wife, it is time to have to rethink the kind of friendship you are into.
Putting pressure on you to do things you don’t want is one of the signs of toxic friendship; fake friends will always try to do this to you.
Poisonous friends frequently like getting people to lower themselves to their level.
For instance, if they have a drinking problem, they might just want to pull you into it.
Or, if they continually change partners, they will often say bad things about you for sticking with your long-term partner.
3. One of the signs of toxic friendship also exhibited is that They Always Want All Your Attention
Every emotional need cannot be met by a single friend.
However, a toxic buddy could attempt to persuade you that you are the only person on earth who can truly comprehend them.
For them, no one else deserves your attention other than them.
4. They Tease or Insult You Regularly
When they always tease you other than encourage you when you are going through a rough patch, this is one of the signs of toxic friendship.
It is particularly serious when they know too well what your weaknesses are and then go ahead to always tease you on them.
Such friends will give you no support in your worse moments, rather, they will choose to poke fun at you; when you see these things, just know that such friends cannot take you anywhere.
You need a different set of friends.
A toxic buddy will probably call you out on being overly sensitive, insinuating that you’re being dramatic when you complain about these things.
A good friend will often apologize when they feel you have issues with a particular joke they made about you.
5. Also part of the sure signs of toxic friendship is that They Disrespect Your Boundaries
No matter how open you are to friends, there are going to be those boundaries that need no crossing, when you find them crossing them, it is a sign that they are friends that are fake and won’t help.
True friends are those that will be empathetic and try to understand and respect the boundaries, but fake friends won’t care whatsoever.
They would want you to respect their boundaries but yours means nothing at all to them and they will always like to cross your boundaries.
6. They Are Jealous of Your Other Friends
In referring to the third point, where they want all your attention, making time for your other friends will always be a problem for them.
They won’t want your other friends to come closer to you or you closer to them.
This is one of the clear signs of fake friendship.
Most often, you will find yourself not engaging in these things because you are in for the collective good of both of you but they will always do these things because they do not care about you and how you feel.
Sometimes, they may even insult your other friends and make them not want to associate with you again so that all your attention will be on them.
7. You Give Considerably More Than You Get.
When this happens, it is a clear sign of fake friendship.
Whatever you do must take the shape of equal measurement but your fake friends will always want to take from you more than they give to you.
Your friend might be abusing your kindness rather than considering what they can bring to the relationship.
They might assume that you don’t have an issue because of this.
8. They Love It When Your Plans Get Cancelled
This is obviously one of the signs of toxic relationship that you should notice.
Toxic friends hate your success, thus, when you have your plans cancelled, rather than show some remorse for your loss, they feel happy and excited.
Remember, also, that they might fake it but when you look closely, you are going to see that they love it when that plan of yours gets cancelled.
9. They Withhold The Real Truth From You
Your fake friends will withhold the real truth from you.
As friends, you need to be as open to each other as possible, but when they begin to tell half-truths about things that they are involved in, it is one of the sure signs of fake friendship.
10. You Keep Lying or Covering for Them
When you find yourself always telling lies in order to protect them or cover them up, it is a sign that they are fake.
When people come to you telling you about things your friend is doing that are not desirable, you find yourself having to defend them and this may take the shape of lying to cover them up.
In as much as a friend may want to cover up for the other, if you find yourself constantly doing this, you have to rethink your friendship as they will continue to do this and eventually put you in trouble.
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If they cannot behave right and it always takes you to tell a lie to spur their blushes, this is a toxic relationship.
It is important to take cognizance of these signs of toxic friendship so that you can also benefit from your relationships.
Coping with a toxic friend could be very frustrating and might cause you certain things at times, as such, you need to make decisions that tenure to your safety and sanity.
You may either want to take your friend into understanding how your friendship should go if you discover that they may be fake (if you want to keep them anyway), or you just make the decision to gradually withdraw from associating with them.
Whichever decision you make has to hinge on how the fake friendship is impacting your life.
Nonnykoli