How To End A Harmful Friendship
At some point in life, we may have to end a harmful friendship, which is not always easy. But when we realize that some relationships are detrimental to our well-being, it’s best to accept the matter and walk away. In this article, we explain how to end a harmful friendship.
It often happens that we ourselves take a stand and avoid ending a harmful friendship. Sometimes we stay unconscious in close spaces with the wrong people. In this article, we’ll look at how we should move forward to take distance from those people who don’t offer us a decent friendship.
Traits of a harmful friendship
Below is a list of some of the most important features of a harmful friendship. The idea is that you recognize such patterns of behavior in your daily life.
This will allow you to distinguish between friendships that are worth maintaining and those that are good to end.
1. Although they are physically present, they are not with you
A person’s physical presence does not necessarily mean that he or she is with you. Sometimes when we make plans with a group of friends, we can feel lonely.
Harmful friends don’t care about your opinions or concerns; they just want you to be with them and accept everything without mumbling.
2. They focus on your faults in a degrading way
Friends help us realize what aspects we should improve within ourselves, but harmful friendships focus on our faults in a useless way. In this way, harmful friends only make us feel bad and offer no solutions.
3. You feel like they are questioning you
Some people tend to question the behavior of others based on their own personal criteria, which is not very empathetic. A true friend does not criticize your decisions, but understands them and gives his or her own opinion.
4. They take your attention away from you
Some friends demand constant attention, and when, for one reason or another, that attention is drawn to us, they can’t stand it. People who don’t let others shine are not able to be friends with others – at least not in the right way.
5. They are inconsistent
Harmful friends are inconsistent in their speeches and often their actions are contradictory. As an example, people who say they support us in our plans but at the same time avoid participating in them.
This does not mean that all of our friends should take part in our personal projects, but when there is a contradiction between speech and deed, the situation is confusing. Ideally, friends should be able to be honest and express clearly when they don’t want to be involved in a plan.
How to decide a harmful friendship: tips and means
Now that we’ve gone through the most common signs of friendships that don’t give us anything positive, it’s time to look at a few effective ways to leave those friendships behind without doing too much harm to us.
1. Learn to set boundaries in a harmful friendship
To let go of a friendship that isn’t worth the effort, it’s important to know where we’re not agreeing to be flexible.
When we are able to maintain a solid position on our ideals and principles, we are able to realize that it is best to distance ourselves from those who do not meet these criteria.
2. How to end a harmful friendship: express yourself firmly
Persistent communication is an important resource that allows us to distance ourselves from bad friendships. When we are able to communicate our decisions clearly, we feel calm. The idea is not to stifle the need to take distance.
Stubbornly expressing oneself also means that we position ourselves as another person and understand that he or she may not agree with our decision to distance. However, we must stand firm and explain our motives briefly, concisely, and respectfully.
3. Lighten the burden before you distance yourself from a harmful friendship
Before talking to the friend you want to distance yourself, it’s a good idea to unravel the matter for someone else. The purpose is to prevent emotions from getting out of hand during the conversation and everything from ending in a dispute.
4. How to end a harmful friendship: visualize the moment of conversation
Visualization is the creation of possible scenarios in one’s own mind – ones that may arise during a conversation. Thanks to the visualization, no situation then comes as such a big surprise to us.
When we keep these tense situations under control, we cope better with them.
5. Respect the opinions of the other person
It is likely that the other person will not like the decision we make. However, we must remain firm.
This is not to say that we should force others to see things our way. It is important to accept the other person’s perspective.
Can a harmful friendship cease to be harmful?
It is not always necessary to distance people; sometimes interpersonal relationships can be improved. A harmful friendship can cease to be harmful as long as the parties are able to respect each other.
Friends don’t have to agree on everything, but they have to accept the differences between them, where possible.
