Did you know that 84% of women said they had a toxic personality friend at some point in their lives? These types of toxic friends can get you into a lot of trouble. Every day we come across several people with different personality traits. Some of these people even make a lasting impression. You might as well choose to stay in touch with them, and eventually, these people turn into your friends, then BFFs. It may seem that you make this decision based on both of your mutual interests, comfort, or need of the moment. But, unfortunately, sometimes it turns into a toxic relationship leaving you drained.
Apparently, even a single toxic person can make you:
- Disbelieve your opinions
- Defame your abilities
- And shatter your dreams.
Science also says that such negative people can even kill you. For that reason, you must try to avoid such types of toxic people by all means.
“People inspire you, or they drain you—pick them wisely.” – Hans F. Hansen.
What is a toxic person like?
We all must have come across toxic people at school, college, workforce, or even our best friends can sometimes be toxic. That’s the thing about toxic people; they are camouflaged everywhere.
But how can you identify a toxic person?
Every time you meet a toxic person, they leave you emotionally drained, demotivated, and negative. It’s all about themselves and makes you feel worthless of being with them.
A study also found that our social circle can influence eating habits. So let’s assume you have a toxic friend who is obese. They can influence you to eat more and eventually make you obese.
So choose your friends wisely!
Toxic Personality Traits
The only thing toxic people do is spreading negativity, unnecessary problems, strife, tension. They eventually become the source of stress in our lives. Toxic people resist logic as well as empathy for others.
Sometimes it may happen that some people innocently end up causing a problem. Such people are unaware of the negative impact that they have on those around them.
On the other hand, some toxic people derive satisfaction by creating chaos in other people’s life. This trait is triggered out of sheer jealousy.
According to psychologists, these are some of the toxic people traits:
- They never apologize.
- Toxic people make you defend yourself.
- They are manipulative.
- They are judgmental.
- Toxic people gossip behind your back.
- They do not support you.
- It’s always about them and not you. They never show up for you.
- They lie to you.
- Narcissistic or gaslighting is a toxic personality.
- They are jealous.
- They don’t show empathy.
So these are few signs of toxic people you should always look for and hence stay away from them.
It is necessary to save yourself from such toxic people because it is very much in your hands.
10 Types of Toxic People You Must Avoid In Your Life To Maintain Peace
1. Manipulators
One of the most common toxic personality traits observed is manipulators. We all have had such type of people in our lives who manipulate us.
Manipulators have a different kind of personality who pulls time and energy out of your life behind the facade of friendship.
They can be complex to deal with because they treat you like a friend. They know what you like, what makes you happy, and what you think is funny, but the difference is that they use this information as part of a secret plan.
Manipulators always want something from you, because, for them, it’s all about taking with little or no giving, which is a sure sign of toxic people troubling us all the time.
They’ll do anything to win you over. Try to avoid such toxic people. Otherwise, you will end up spending a lot of energy in confronting them.
2. Criticizers
It is okay to have people who guide you by giving you fruitful criticism. But some love to criticize and bring you down.
No matter how good you are at your task or how many efforts you put into a particular activity, these types of toxic people will somehow find a way to tell you that it’s not good.
They are extremely negative and pessimistic, possessing toxic personality traits. Nothing is ever good enough, and no one will ever succeed in anything, according to them.
Criticizers are the type of toxic people who will consistently judge you.
Would you like to be around someone like this? I am sure your answer will be NO. So, avoid such toxic people, and your mind will thank you for this.
Such toxic people become a hindrance if you are trying to build a specific type of personality.
3. Gossipers
“Great minds discuss ideas, average ones discuss events, and small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt.
Gossip is what holds our society together these days. It is okay to gossip once in a while. After all, we are all humans. But, if you’re with someone who constantly gossips, you need to think it over. Not only are you wasting time with the nonsense, but also corrupting your thoughts.
If your friend can gossip about others in front of you, can you guarantee that they will not gossip about you in front of others? They will because gossiping becomes a part of their personality and a sure sign of how toxic people are.
4. Self-Absorbed
These types of toxic people believe in “ME” and not “WE.”
Self-absorbed people lack empathy and are unable to see other’s perspectives. They always do things in their own best interests. Whatever they do, think, or say is always surrounding them. It is indeed essential to always put oneself first, but self-absorbed people go way beyond that by suppressing others and never allow anyone else to do so.
In the simplest terms, these type of toxic people are:
- egoist,
- selfish,
- self-centered,
- obnoxious.
One of the reasons why someone cultivates self-centered behavior traces back to the parenting style.
Parents of obnoxious kids fulfill every request. When these children fuss, cry or demand something their parents attend to them and they get what they want immediately. These emotional and behavioral associations stick to them even after they become adults.
Their own emotions, feelings, actions, comfort, needs, etc. should always be prioritized.
Also, research conducted over more than a decade shows that loneliness is a significant factor that increases self-centeredness, leading to this type of toxic personality.
Try to avoid such toxic people and learn to stand up for your own opinions.
5. Envious
Envy, in other terms, means jealousy. We all have had such types of personalities in our lives.
Envious people are jealous of your achievements, happiness, success, and the love you receive.
They measure their fortune against the worlds when they should be deriving their satisfaction from within.
Hence, envious people will do anything to make sure there is no one better than them. Spending too much time with jealous people is dangerous because they teach you to underestimate your endeavors.
One of the toxic personality traits that must never be ignored is being envious. Keep an eye on such types of toxic people to avoid disturbance in your life.
6. Needy
One of the most common signs of toxic people is that they are continually needy.
We all have needs. Sometimes, we ourselves cannot fulfill those needs and thus end up asking for someone’s help.
But some people make this a habit. They are continually asking for something or the other.
It starts with something small and may end up with something big like financial help, materials, etc. It would help if you stayed away from habitually needy people for your own good.
7. Temperamental
Yet another most toxic personality trait is the temperamental type of people.
These are the kind of people who have no control over their emotions whatsoever and one of the toxic people’s signs.
At any given time, they will lash out at you and project their feelings, assuming that you are the one causing their discontent. They may quickly end up playing the victim.
Temperamental people are tough to dump from your life because their lack of control over their emotions makes you feel bad for them.
But don’t get blown away. Stand up for yourself and learn to say no.
These kinds of people may harm your ability to focus, and it’s good to avoid these kinds of toxic people from your life.
8. Dementors – Are The Most Toxic People You Must Avoid
I’m sure you all are familiar with J. K. Rowling’s famous “Harry Potter” series. We also know about her own set of struggling days when she came across such types of toxic people in her life.
She identified the signs of toxic people and stayed away from them to focus on her writings. One of the personality types was the Dementors.
According to the series, dementors are evil creatures that suck people’s souls out of their bodies, leaving them merely as humans’ shells.
Whenever a dementor enters a room, darkness sets in; people get cold and immediately recall their worst memories.
Guess where J.k Rowling got the idea of toxic people like the dementors?
J.K. Rowling said that she developed the concept for dementors based on highly negative people – the kind of people who can walk into a room and instantly suck the life out of it.
We, too, have such people surrounding us, and it’s best to avoid them.
9. Liars
These types of people can be tough to spot, until and unless they are caught red-handed. As humans, we make mistakes and lie occasionally. In a TED talk ‘The future of lying‘, Jeff Hancock shares research that shows that we all lie once or twice every day.
Some of the common lies that non-toxic people share very often are:
- Sorry, I was caught up in the traffic.
- My phone was dead.
- I have other plans this weekend.
As far as the intention behind lying isn’t significantly deceptive, it can be overlooked.
However, you have to be careful with prolific liars or big liars. Many prolific liars leave no room for trust in a relationship and can 19.1 lies for every 1 big lie they’ve shared in the past. Research also finds that Facebook and online dating space are the most where people lie.
It is extremely annoying to be with someone who is constantly lying on your face. You may even develop mistrust for others because of such people. So, it’s better to stay away from such type of toxic people
10. Slackers
Slackers are the ones who laze around and don’t complete any tasks assigned to them. In turn, they somehow make you do their errands.
Being around someone who habitually avoids work and does not feel like doing anything might be extremely discouraging and demotivating, no matter what you want to do.
Slackers make you do their work and end up taking the credit for the same themselves. This is indeed one of the signs of a toxic person that you must avoid.
11. The Insecure Type Of Toxic People
Insecurity and the lack of trust is the root cause of fading relationships these days. These types of toxic people have no faith in themselves and pull you back.
They don’t believe in their self-growth instead focus on other people’s destruction.
For example, a toxic co-worker may not necessarily improve his/her skills. But nitpick your daily activities and bring you down in front of other team members.
Concluding thoughts on toxic people,
Choose your inner circle and your friends wisely because not only will they motivate you to achieve your dreams, but they also can make or break you. If you like this article, share it with your true friends and subscribe to us for more awesome content.
Do you know other signs of a toxic person? Have you been in a toxic or unhealthy relationship? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
You can also enjoy reading more interesting FAQs below!
FAQs On Types of Toxic People & Personality
How do you know someone is toxic?
There are several significant signs of toxic people that you must observe to know if someone is toxic.
Here are some red flags:
- These are people who always play the blame game.
- Constant criticism and forced attention-seeking is a common trait of toxic people.
- They are dismissive
- If they gossip behind your back, it means they are toxic.
- They bring you down before others and make you feel less.
Why are people toxic?
Most of the people with toxic behave negatively, mainly because of their own beliefs and insecurities. They try to hide their problems and thereby fail to look for solutions.
So when they see others progressing, toxic people come out to harm them emotionally and mentally with their toxic behaviors.
Insecurity can be the basis of several toxic personality traits.
How to deal with toxic people?
The first thing to remember when dealing with toxic or difficult people is that they will never change. They do what they do for many reasons. Different toxic people have different types of personalities. And you cannot go preaching to everyone.
Instead of focusing on changing their behavior or attitude towards you, try to train your brain to handle their stress more effectively.
Even better? Try to avoid them by setting healthy boundaries or limits.
What are the types of people that you should always avoid?
The most common types of toxic people that you should always avoid in life are:
- Manipulators
- Criticizers
- Gossipers
- Self-Absorbed
- Envious
- Needy
- Temperamental
- Dementors
- Liars
- Slackers
- Insecure people
