Toxic Friends

Instructions

Today I’m here to try to talk about toxic friends, how to see them and leave them. Uhmh n I don’t usually like to open up online but I already did once. So why not do it again he he heeeeeseeee. So first imma share my experience with toxic friends just because why not… (and to show an example) I’m not going to share everything for privacy!! I was stuck in a toxic friendship for almost 4 years. So it was tough. It was also my first (what I thought at the time) “real” friendship. I was friends with them in Kindergarten- end of 3rd grade. I just don’t remember when they said something kinda nice to me. They just insulted me all the time. It made me really hate myself. It made me not mentally ok for a long time. I thought it was my fault. I didn’t tell my parents because I thought that they would think I was lying. So… I stayed. It affected me a lot. I moved neighborhoods and never saw them again. I never really told them that I was gonna move. So, yayyyyaay. Sorry for the rant. So I’m going to share how I think u should handle yourself in this situation. YOU SHOULD NOT DO WHAT I DID >:(. Don’t stay. No matter what, you don’t deserve anyone who makes you feel bad. So the basic description of a toxic friend is “someone whose behavior consistently creates an unhealthy dynamic in a friendship, leaving you feeling drained, manipulated, or emotionally hurt. They may exhibit traits like constant criticism, lack of support, controlling behavior, or even manipulation, negatively impacting your emotional well-being” -G00gle :) If you feel like that there are friends in your life that are like this, try to leave. There are many ways that u can get out of situations like this. One way is just leaving. You don’t even have to make a big deal out of it. Maybe say “I don’t really wanna hang out with u anymore” and leave. Just leave and find other people to hang out with. Or tell a trusted friend or adult to ask how to deal with this situation. One situation is having only one friend out of a whole friend group that treats you like this, and everyone else is nice. One thing to do is just asking your other friends in the group if they feel the way you do. Most of the time it isn’t targeted. If it is, try to ask ur other friends in the group if they can try to stick up for u. If ur friends are mean about it, then I recommend leaving that group. I hope this helps. Pls feel free to ask any questions if I didn’t cover anything. I still haven’t really recovered from that experience so I want to try to prevent it for others.