Like romantic relationships, friendships are meant to enrich your life, not drain happiness from it. Every now and then, though, you might be stuck in a friendship that seems to only drain you of energy and leaves you feeling worse after seeing or speaking to this person. Breaking up with a friend is always difficult, which is why a lot of us have trouble recognizing the signs of a bad friendship and pulling the plug on it. Even still, it’s a necessary thing to handle, if you feel that the friendship is adding stress to your life. Here are a few signs that your friendship has turned sour, and what to do to handle it.
Signs Your Friendship is Toxic
1. They’re a bad influence on you. Your behaviors have changed for the worse since you started hanging out with your friend. What’s worse, they don’t respect your healthy habits.
2. They bail on you all the time. When you make plans with this friend, they never follow through. You feel as though you can never depend on them to do what they say they will.
3. They routinely betray you. Your friend tells your secrets to others, gossips behind your back, or doesn’t respect you as a person. They may betray your trust without a second thought.
4. They say mean things. A friend should never say anything mean to you – even if they are “just kidding.” A bad friend will say mean things to you without understanding why they’re hurtful.
5. They are always jealous of you. Anytime something good happens to you, you feel as though you can’t tell your friend out of jealousy. This friend can never be happy for you.
How to Gracefully End a Friendship
1. Voice your concern. Try talking it out with your friend before cutting them off. If you think you can salvage your relationship, you might find success in simply voicing your concerns and seeing if you can work around the issue.
2. Speak over the phone or in person. A conversation of this magnitude should never happen over text messages. Ask your friend to meet in person, set a date to meet virtually, or give them a phone call.
3. Be honest, gracious, and firm. Now is not the time to make empty promises or excuses. Be honest about what’s going on. Allow the other person to discuss their feelings, and if appropriate, share happy memories. But, don’t allow yourself to be talked down. Stay firm.
4. Unfollow them on social media. If you want to rid yourself of this friendship, you’ll need to do so across every platform, digital or otherwise. Remove them from your friends' list and you won’t be tempted to reach out to them again.
As the saying goes, knowledge is power – and, at White Rock Apartments in San Antonio, Texas, we couldn’t agree more! We hope that this blog has presented you with the valuable information that you were seeking out.