Toxic People

Sometimes you will encounter people in your life who seem to have been put in your life's path just to torment you. They will bring you down, and then take perverse delight in making you feel like the stupidest person in this world, the most ugliest, the most unwanted and the most depressed. They will be the ones to see doom and gloom all over the place, lurking at every corner, and so thwart your attempts to be happy. They are the ones who will be obstacles to the very things you want from your life. Yet you may blame your bad luck in meeting such people, but not do a single thing to change the situation, to rid such toxic people from your life. The worse thing you can do is to tolerate toxic people in the hopes that they will become less toxic because they never will. And sooner or later you might start believing them - that you are indeed worthless.

Too many people end up in such situations, caught up in toxic friendships and relationships, believing the worst of themselves. Horror of horrors, if the person who is most toxic to you is also the person who is supposed to be your best friend, or your partner. For that person, knowing all of your weaknesses, would have the best ammunition available to cut you down. If the said person does that constantly, then he or she is nothing more than a devil.

How to know when you're entering a toxic relationship with someone? This is what I have concluded from my own experience: It begins when nasty words are exchanged constantly. For example, when you are spending money and making the effort to place a long distance call just to hear someone's voice, and he snaps at you like a bull dog (hmm, how about this "what do you want me to eat, rocks, stupid?". Or when someone asserts that you are the sole reason for the lack of direction in a certain person's life. Or that they have been short changed by surrounding themselves with people intellectually inferior to themselves. These are the stuff that poisons the minds of all involved, making it difficult for there to be trust and support. When one can't trust or ask for support from their friends or partners, then it signals a huge problem. And you're better off alone, or with someone else.

Life is much too short to live in toxicity. And I've accepted that I've wasted many good years already.