Toxic Friends

I have been thinking a lot about friendships and their impact on mental health and how having a good support network is vital. I have come to the realization that I tend to attract a certain type of person and I really want to break that habit.  

The kind of person I mean is the one that leaves you feeling emotionally drained after spending  time with them. They suck all of the energy out of you and all they have done is talk. They will often talk over you and quickly bring the conversation back to them.  They basically use you as a sounding board. It occurred to me recently that I know several people like this. I often come away from these interactions thinking this friendship is really one-sided. I need to start being more selective regarding my friendships if I am going to feel the friendship is equal.

I know we all need to just rant at sometimes I do this myself. I think dealing with depression and anxiety relationships that are one-sided can be detrimental to your health. When feeling overwhelmed by dealing with your own issues social interactions need to be enjoyable and as stress free as possible, especially if you deal with social anxiety.  Such relationships tend to take advantage not only of your time, but often in other ways too. Only contacting you when they want something, asking for favours and not reciprocating etc.

I understand that in my training as a counsellor I am going to come across people who present in this way, and in a professional setting I would do my best to help them. From personal experience it is apparent that these interactions are often a signal that they too are struggling in their own way and often do have unhappy lives.  I am not unsympathetic but I need to surround myself with more positive people. It is better to have less people around rather than filling the friendship void with negative people.