Friendship is something that you cherish all your life, you live with your friends and share your everyday life and problems with them. Sometimes, you do not realise what you are doing until you sit back and ponder upon your actions.
You might be doing something that is turning you into a toxic friend, there might be many signs of it but they are so subtle that you do not see them. Your actions may be unintentional but they are hurting your friends and it is spoiling your friendship.
If there are some issues arising in your friendship, you need to look out for these signs and see if you are turning it toxic:
1. Conversations revolve around you
It is always a give and take relationship, Look back and see if your recent past conversations have all revolved around you only. If this is the case, then the balance in your relationship is off. It is okay to get carried away when you get excited or emotional but if you are doing it all the time, then it may seriously harm your friendship and turn it toxic.
2. You cancel all plans
You cancel plans, do not reply to texts and make last minute changes in things, all these things done once in a blue moon is fine but if you are doing it repeatedly then it might be a problem. Your friend might not complain bu they are feeling that they are not that important anymore in your life. So if you have been doing this, you need to come back on line.
3. Constant reassurance
You go to your friends in your time of need but it is one thing to ask them for advice and it is another thing to depend on them totally. So you need to take care of the fact that you do not depend on them for things because they might help you out once but then they too have a life and they cannot keep going about for you.
4. Unrealistic expectations
If you are being let down by one friend, it is okay but you feel that you are being let down by all your friends then you need to realise that the problem might be your expectations. You might be expecting a lot from them. You cannot expect them to never hurt you or never do anything wrong, they too are humans and bound to make mistakes. SO keep your expectations healthy to prevent your friendship from becoming toxic.
5. Giving unnecessary advice
Sometimes what our friends need is just an ear to listen to them. But what you do is you give them advice on anything and everything, even if they have not asked for it. Doing this might make you seem judgy which is not good for your friendship.
6. Always staying connected
You are an individual too, so is your friend, you simply cannot expect them to stay connected with you all the time. They have their own life. Knowing things about each other and sharing is good but trying to stay connected constantly might annoy them. So here you will have to back off a bit and let them breathe.