Friendships are beautiful relationships that humans form and choose. Unlike blood relationships, friendships are your chosen people that you want to be around. Unfortunately, toxic friendships exist, too, which might not be visible in the beginning. However, as time passes by, it can take a toll on your mental health.
Issues like depression, insecurities, anxiety, and more can arise from your toxic friendship. Remember, it is okay to seek support from a professional. Irvine psychiatry professionals can assist you in tackling your mental health struggles and ensure it does not get affected by the circumstances you are in.
How do you know your friendship is toxic?
A toxic friendship can come in various forms. It can be tricky to understand the signs of your friendship with someone being toxic, but it is not impossible. Here are a few things you should pay attention to:
- Your friend does not listen to your problems or worries but wants you to listen to them all the time.
- They constantly pass mean comments about you and mask it as a joke or even in the name of friendship.
- Your friend keeps making excuses to not be there for you when you need them but would expect the opposite when it is them in the same situation.
- They badmouth or talk bad about you behind your back to other people while they pretend to be sweet on your face.
- They always make you feel insignificant and do not acknowledge your feelings, success, achievements, or anything.
- Whenever there is a miscommunication or misunderstanding, they try to avoid communicating or blame you for everything.
- Lack of communication and understanding from their end.
While the signs are unlimited, they could be different for each person. However, your mind will start catching up on a toxic friend soon, and you will start feeling uncomfortable around them. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the small signs.
How does it affect your mental health?
A toxic friendship, especially when it is long, can have significant consequences on your mental health. It can lead to developing trust issues and make it difficult for a person to trust anyone around them when it comes to friendship. This further impacts the genuine relationships they might be building due to the damage done by the previous toxic ones.
Additionally, people also develop insecurity issues and feel belittled about themselves. Many are also reported to fall into depression and opt for negative ways of coping with the broken friendship.
Seek support.
It is always better to take care of your mental health by seeking support. It could be your friends, family, or a professional that can understand you!
