10 signs of a toxic friendship every Nigerian woman should know

Every Nigerian woman should know how to end a toxic friendship without stress. If you don’t know the signs to look out for to confirm the status of your friendship with someone, you will end up being tossed around by toxic, envious and user friends.

In life, friendships with some people can become abusive, emotionally draining and damaging. Instead of bringing love, companionship and comfort into your life, a toxic friendship will bring drama, pain, exhaustion and frustration.

Anybody who cause you pain shouldn’t be in your life. You must know how to deal with toxic friends by letting them go. It doesn’t matter how long you have known this friend who hurts you, you should choose yourself above that friendship.

Here are 10 signs of a toxic friendship you should be aware of:

1. They put you down constantly. They always focus on your weaknesses and never make you feel good about yourself. Whenever you are with them, they make you begin to doubt yourself.

They won’t compliment you or congratulate you when something good happens in your life. If achieve something, they will pretend not to know. They are always for bad things to happen to you so that they can show fake support.

2. Toxic friends thrive on drama and chaos. These people are always creating drama on per second billing. They are always fighting with different people and somehow they manage to rope you into the chaos they create everywhere they go. You always hear stories about their many dramas and if you are not careful, you will inherit their enemies too.

3. A toxic friend is always competing with you. This person sees you as their competition in life, love, career and relationship wise. This person may even be envious of how other people love and respond to you. They want to be involved in everything concerning your life. Even if you are not in the same field with this person, they envy you.

4. Everything revolves around a toxic friend. You can’t seem to do your thing and have them give you space. They manage to insert themselves into your life, head, space and other relationships. This person won’t listen to you during a conversation but they will make sure a random conversation suddenly revolves around them. They are the only one that matter.

5. A toxic friend doesn’t respect your boundaries. They lack respect for your decisions and cross your boundaries at will. They won’t listen when you tell them their actions are hurting you. They will wave it off as if it’s a joke.

They will make you feel guilty for daring to tell them that you feel disrespected. They will emotionally blackmail you if you need to spend time alone. Such people are very selfish.

6. A toxic friend will become jealous of your other friends and try to separate you from them. They will bad mouth your other friends, cook up terrible stories about them, tell you that they are the only good friend you have and try to keep you isolated from enjoying friendships with other people. They are master manipulators.

7. They make you feel responsible for them. because they are very needy. They lie to get sympathy. They know how to make people feel bad for them. They play on other people’s emotions and guilt trip you into thinking they can’t continue living with you in their lives. That way, you won’t be bold to leave their sorry asses to protect your peace.

8. Toxic friends are hypocrites. They accuse you of not spending enough time with them but they will never apologize for letting you down or hurting your feelings. They are always right. They don’t know how to apologize genuinely. They will borrow money from you and not pay back and when you remind them, they start throwing tantrums. They expect you to continue to put up with their abusive behaviour.

9. Toxic friends copy you and do whatever you do. They are not content with their lives and they somehow copy you because they want to feel like you. You get a piercing, they rush and get one too. You buy a particular perfume, they buy it immediately too. Anytime you buy a handbag or a dress, they rush and buy it. They do whatever you do just to catch up with you. It is common for toxic friends to envy you, crave your life and try to steal your identify in some cases.

10. A toxic friend drains you emotionally, psychologically and mentally. You cannot live your life well if you are in a toxic friendship. You are constantly on edge around them because you don’t want to upset them. You are not free to be yourself in toxic friendships because your friend demands so much from you.

Are you wondering how to end a toxic friendship, these steps will help you:

1. Accept your reality. Stop making excuses for your toxic friend.

2. How do you end a toxic friendship gracefully? You become clear with your intentions to protect your peace.

3. You identify your enabling role in the friendship. If you had taken a stand earlier, things won’t get that complicated.

4. You find a way to end your friendship with that person amicably. You don’t have to be dramatic about it.

5. Give yourself time to grieve before you make new friends. Don’t jump into new friendships if you haven’t healed emotionally.

So ladies, this is how to get over a toxic friendship.