Friendships are a cornerstone of life.
They contribute to connection, intimacy, and bonding.
But it’s also true that we need to be discerning in who we decide to allow into our inner circle.
The simple truth of the matter is that not all friends are equal. And as you navigate life and decide who you should spend time with, it’s important to avoid negative friendships that have the potential to drag you down and make your life worse.
It’s vitally important to choose to have relationships with people who lift us up and complement our lives in a positive, beneficial way.
With that being said, here are some examples of types of negative people that you should probably avoid having friendships with at all cost.
1. The Complainer
This type of person always seems to find more negativity than positivity in the world. We should always strive to be grateful in life, because gratitude helps to contribute to happiness.
Complainers, however, are the opposite.
They tend to complain about their jobs, spouses, friendships—everything.
There’s nothing wrong with a little ‘venting’ now and then. But people who constantly complain should probably be avoided.
2. The Friend Who Disrespects You
If a friend says or does things that are disrespectful to you or to your core values, it’s always a good idea to talk to them about the problem immediately.
It’s possible that they didn’t mean to be insensitive.
But it’s also true that some people are just disrespectful by nature. And if your friend seems to fall into this category, and seems to act disrespectfully more often than not, it’s likely definitely time to walk away and stop hanging out with them.
3. The Dramatic Friend
If this person’s life is a constant soap opera of drama, chaos, and just in-general displays an overall lack of order, you may be best suited to keep your distance.
People who start and perpetuate drama are bound to bring that drama into your circle if you let them into it.
Sure, at first it may be slightly entertaining.
But eventually, it’ll start to affect you as well. And that’s definitely not a good thing.
4. The Competitive Friend
Does your friend always seem to have to ‘one up’ you? Does it seem like they always have to compete to feel like they’re better, or to let you know that they’re doing better than you?
This type of friend tends to be exhausting and self-centered.
By contrast, a good friend will listen to your success stories, congratulate you, and celebrate with you.
The ‘competitive friend’ is definitely a friend to avoid bringing into your inner circle.
5. The Friend Who Hangs Onto Grudges
This type of friend is highly negative because they hold onto things from the past, and continue to allow those things to influence their behavior.
Even when you try to move forward, they tend to stay stuck in place, complaining or continually bringing up things that other people (or maybe even that you) have done to them.
But these types of people are very negative to spend time around. Instead of accepting, forgiving, moving on, and growing, they continue to rehash things and experience the negativity of those events over and over.
It’s an absolute recipe for a negative spiral, and it’ll wear off on you if you spend too much time with those people.
In Conclusion
There you have it.
5 examples of negative friendships that you should definitely avoid in your life.
The quality of your friends will dictate, to a pretty substantial degree, the quality of your happiness in life overall.
So choose wisely.