It shouldn’t surprise anybody that many friendships are severed due to a lack of warmth and more than a few harsh words. Creating physical distance between friends, or even family members is sometimes all you need to protect your mental health from a toxic relationship.
How Do You Know When To Distance Yourself From A Friend?
That doesn’t make it any less difficult to cut someone off completely.
However, you should seriously consider ending things if any of the following statements describe your partnership:
- Feeling ignored, exploited, and exhausted are the results;
- It prevents you from living as you desire;
- It makes it more challenging to implement necessary adjustments;
- It cuts you off from the people that care about you the most;
- It’s always leading you down a path to disaster or the shadows.
Compatibility in upbringing and shared interests isn’t even the most important factor in forming a close friendship.
Knowing why you want to sever your friendship with this person might help ease the process. Which one best describes your situation from the following list of five explanations?
1. Their actions have hurt crucial relationships
This individual always manages to put you in an uncomfortable situation with everyone. You must fix everything that goes wrong when they travel with you, apologizing and making excuses the whole time.
The friendship isn’t important to them, therefore they’ve apologized to you in the past, but they haven’t done anything to make up for their bad behavior toward the same person.
You have been disappointed frequently due to your unwavering optimism and choice to give others the benefit of the doubt. It is not worth jeopardizing other, more valuable friendships for the company’s sake.
You’re not giving up on them but rather on the potential you once saw in them.
2. Toxic conduct against you and others
If you look up the definition of “narcissist,” you’ll find that your acquaintance fits the profile perfectly. And things have progressed to the point where you can no longer brush it off or say, “They mean well, truly, but…”
When they originally managed to woo you into hanging out with them, was the last time anything between you two was simple? They made you feel alive and unique with their actions or words, and you’re grateful to call them a friend.
The current day finds them still acting as though they rescued you from your passive, powerless prior self. Get in touch with folks who can give you a new viewpoint.
3. You couldn’t count on them when you needed them
They expected you to drop everything for them, but now they won’t even answer the phone calls or reply to your texts.
Not that you expect them to stick around, but if they aren’t there for you when you need them, what’s the point of being friends in the first place?
It would be understandable if they were unable to read or react to your messages on social media accounts due to illness, family emergency, or any other valid reason.
The individual didn’t care enough to try. And you’re done being called a liar and subjected to gaslighting. Start to create physical space to end ties with the particular person.
Create space and detach emotionally, though detachment takes time so practice patience, if you’re physically surrounded by someone all the time, you’ll never be able to cut all ties with them, and you cannot push them out of your personal life.
4. Their influence has made things worse for you
Why is it that while you’re with this “friend,” it’s so much simpler to make decisions you’ll later come to regret? When they initially propose it, the idea seems like a lot of fun; it’s adventurous and maybe even a little terrifying, but it’s probably safe in the end.
Once the repercussions have arrived, only then will you realize what you’ve done. Of course, they will. However, if you confront your “friend” about it, they may have avoided the worst consequences. That’s up to you.
It seems unlikely that the situation will change very soon.
5. You’ve grown apart
You no longer have any common ground or even any interests. Perhaps you and this person can’t see yourself as anything more than polite acquaintances because of your fundamental differences of opinion on essential topics.
In your mind, friends are people who share your values and beliefs. This individual may have many of the same outward characteristics, routines, and interests as you, yet their inner being is completely foreign to yours.
In another way, there is no solid foundation upon which to agree.
Final Thought
Having to let go hurts a lot. If you want to take charge of the issue, you must make a deliberate decision. It’s something that takes time and work.
Kindness toward oneself will help you focus on the task at hand and take pleasure in any successes, no matter how minor.
Your mental and physical well-being might suffer if you worry too much about other people’s problems and circumstances. Putting some distance between yourself and a toxic situation might provide you with the mental and emotional space you need to heal.
There may be some temporary worry or anxiety throughout the procedure, but ultimately the goal is to alleviate whatever is causing it. When that happens, you’ll find that you’re much more at peace with yourself and the world.
