Things to Know If You’re Concerned About a Toxic Relationship

Rossamund
4 min readApr 17, 2024

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Things to Know About a Toxic Relationship

A toxic relationship is a relationship that makes you feel unsupported, belittled, or attacked. A relationship becomes toxic when your well-being is threatened in several ways: psychologically, emotionally and even physically.

Toxic relationships are situations where someone often makes the atmosphere or a relationship, whether a friendship or a love relationship, worse. Bad here can be interpreted as one of the parties being toxic in the relationship.

Basically, any relationship that makes you feel worse, rather than better, can become toxic over time.
People with mental illnesses, such as major depression, bipolar disorder, or even depressive tendencies, will be particularly susceptible to toxic relationships because they are already sensitive to negative emotions.

For example, a person with bipolar disorder who is in the midst of a mixed or depressive episode may have weaker emotional stability than a person with a healthy personality, and this may make the person an easy target for toxic people. However, toxic people can attack anyone.

Types of Toxic Relationships
Toxic relationships aren’t limited to romantic ones. They can occur in families, workplaces, and among groups of friends, and they can be extremely stressful, especially if the toxicity is not addressed effectively.

When there is negative behavior.
The constant complaints, critical comments, and negative attitudes of some people create a toxic environment. Other toxic traits may include perfectionism, unhealthy competitiveness, and frequent lying. A person may also allow his insecurities to bring out the worst in him.

When one (or both) people lack self-awareness.
Sometimes people are not aware of the negative impact they have on others. They may also not know healthier ways of communicating. It’s likely they don’t know how to read social cues well enough to know when they’re frustrating others or making them feel criticized or ignored.

When someone intentionally hurts someone else.
Some people are deliberately rude and hurtful. In this situation, you may feel excluded and targeted by their cruel words and actions. Someone may also be trying to control or manipulate you, which is toxic behavior.

When your partner keeps cheating.
If an intimate partner lies and cheats without making an effort to change his behavior, it adds a toxic element to the relationship.

When someone commits violence.
When people repeatedly and deliberately hurt you, their behavior can be considered abusive. Whether they are constantly gossiping about you, or physically hurting you in any way, harassment is never okay.

Characteristics of Toxic People
You also need to know about the characteristics of people who have toxic traits. This can help you to identify whether there is someone in your environment who has toxic characteristics.
Because someone with toxic traits can cause damage to you or the environment. The following are the characteristics of people who have toxic traits.

1. Appears only in pleasure and disappears in distress or sadness.
One characteristic of toxic people is that they are often not around when you need them. They are more likely to be there when you are happy and disappear when you need help. Toxic people also often force you to help them when they need help.

2. Does not have sympathy and empathy.
If you hope toxic people can understand you, then you are dreaming. Toxic people cannot understand or relate to other people. An example is when you are telling them about a personal problem. They will never give you consolation or support. But they will actually pass judgment or maybe they will blame you.

3. Controls and manipulates you.
Toxic people usually have the habit of controlling and manipulating others. They do not hesitate to control other people so that they can do anything so that what they want can be achieved more easily. If toxic people are caught lying, they will lie again and make a thousand excuses to cover up the lies that have been exposed. Even toxic people can make you feel as though you owe them a debt of gratitude.

4. Not Apologizing or Admitting Mistakes
It can not only be detrimental to you and the environment. Toxic people are also people who don’t want to apologize. In fact, they don’t want to admit the mistakes they have made.
Most toxic people blame other people more than admitting their personal mistakes. They enter into relationships with other people just to be able to achieve their desired goals more smoothly. Toxic people can also change their position as if they are the victim of a problem that is currently in their life. A toxic person’s pretense is to get attention and sympathy from other people.

5. Putting down and belittling other people.
A true friend will support you and be happy with the success you achieve in this life. However, it is different from toxic people. They will continue to deny the success you have achieved, to the point that this will irritate and irritate you. When toxic people know the success you are getting. It is possible that they will compare their success with the success of other people or themselves. The aim is to bring down your mental state. The point is that toxic people will not be happy if other people are more successful than themselves and they will try to bring other people down in any way they can.

Signs You’re in a Toxic Relationship

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