5 Types of Toxic People To Avoid If You Want a Stress-Free Life

Stress in everyday life seems inevitable and it can find you anywhere, at home or at work. While this may be true, managing stress and where it finds you may help you deal with different situations better and eventually lead to a stress-free life.

One way to manage stress is to manage stressors in our lives. And one such stressors are the type of people we meet and deal with everyday. A Forbes article on “10 Toxic People You Should Avoid At All Costs” talks about avoiding “toxic” people or people who bring “strong negative emotions” when one encounters them.

According to research studies that the article cited, toxic people and the negativity they bring causes “a massive stress response” among the subjects of the studies. If stress continues over a period of time, studies also say that it can affect one’s capacity to reason and to remember, proving that exposure to toxic people can damage your brain permanently.

Here are the five types of toxic personalities that one should avoid getting in contact with.

The Rumor-Monger and Gossip-Lover

People who love gossip tend to focus on the small things: what the boss said to a fellow employee when he or she failed to do something, how the employee reacted, or even the personal struggles a co-worker is currently experiencing, rather than looking at the big picture. They only see the negative aspect of a situation and ignores what is positive. They can even go a step further when they begin to tell different versions of the story to other people, so that the person concerned is discredited or loses their integrity. Don’t waste your precious time talking to this type.

The Temperamental

These are people who have not outgrown their tantrum phase. They have a hard time controlling their emotions: one time, they will lose their temper over something they cannot control, while another time they will break down and cry over another situation. In both cases, you will be at the receiving end of their emotional break and will likely be blamed for what they are experiencing. Absorbing all these negative emotions will take a toll on your own emotional health.

The Judgmental

Have you ever felt the need to stop yourself from blurting out an opinion or a feeling to another person because you were afraid of being labeled as something? It’s likely that the person you are with is someone who is quick to judge, and will immediately put you down. These persons do not value other people’s perspectives or opinions, and they are not willing to learn from others. Keep away from this lot because they will never bring about real understanding and learning.

The Envious

Envious people always look at other people’s achievements and compare their own. And their comparison will always fall short. They will always think that most if not all other people are better off than them. Hanging around with people like this may help you lose your focus: you will tend to belittle your own achievements rather than be content with what you have done in your life so far.  

The Narcissist

Probably the most toxic personality type of them all is the narcissist. This person tends to think that everything revolves around him or her. So this person’s actions will always be for his own benefit. If he finds you useful for his own self-promotion, he will stick with you. But once you have outlived your usefulness, he will drop you like a hot potato. He will not form any meaningful relationship with anyone because he feels he can do it on his own.