Have you landed yourself with a friend who drains your self-esteem, confidence, social life or bank account? Sounds like you need a friendship detox
Relationships come and go, but we’re ingrained with the idea that friends are forever. For the most part mates are a lifeline; you laugh, cry, obsess, analyse and get drunk with them. But a toxic friendship – or a frenemy as featured in Sex and The City – has the opposite effect and a night out with a toxic friend can leave you demoralised, resentful and angry.
"Toxic friendships are bad because they're stressful at best, and may be abusive. We're all so busy these days, why waste precious energy on a negative experience?"
As Florence Isaacs, author of Toxic Friends/True Friends: How Your Friendships Can Make Or Break Your Health, Happiness, Family, and Career says, “A toxic friendship (it's the relationship that's toxic) is regularly - that’s the key word, none of us our perfect - unsupportive, unsatisfying, draining, stifling, and/or unequal. You can both be caring people, but the dynamic doesn't do either of you any good.
“Toxic friendships are bad because they're stressful at best, and may be abusive. They also make you feel bad about yourself and take effort, time, and emotional energy that could be spent on positive friendships that bring you connection, support, and pleasure. We're all so busy these days, why waste precious energy on a negative experience?”
Self-obsessed, cruel, boring and needy; these friends are seriously polluting. You wouldn’t put up with being humiliated, betrayed or stood up frequently by your partner, so why do we tolerate such bad behaviour from a friend?
We identify six frenemies and tell you how to go organic with our guide to detoxing that poisonous mate…