How to deal with toxic people: 6 tips

Different key ideas on how to deal with toxic people while minimizing their influence.

Toxic people are those who, in a wide variety of situations, will lead us with them into situations of domination or hostility and confrontation. Some may be better than others at disguising the fact that they are a bad influence, but in general, in most cases it does not take much work to realize how easy it is to create situations in which someone gets hurt.

In spite of this, it is clear that as a simple matter of probability, it is impossible to always stay away from this type of person. In certain circumstances, it is necessary to relate to them, even if it is in contexts that one has not sought. In this article we will see how to behave towards toxic people..

How to deal with toxic people

It is true that each person is, in part product of the circumstances that has touched him to live. We can hardly say that someone is the way they are because they have decided to behave that way.

We have a certain margin of maneuver to decide what to do in each situation, but we are also influenced by our personality and the way we behave. We are greatly influenced by our personality and the way we have learned to relate to our environment and to others. with the environment and with others. We are conditioned by elements beyond our control.

However, in practice, not all of us have enough time and resources to take responsibility for re-educating the toxic people around us. That is why it is useful to know what to do it is useful to know what to do on a daily basis when it comes to dealing with them.. Let's take a look at the following tips.

1. Don't give them undeserved attention

In many cases, the negative attitudes conveyed by toxic people are only a way to gain power of influence by getting the people around them emotionally involved in conflicts, if possible by switching to their side. Generating problems where there are none through fictions based on lies or exaggerations..

Therefore, in these cases it is best to ignore these attempts to position ourselves for or against a non-existent conflict beyond the imagination of the toxic person.

2. Do not take it personally

Some toxic people have a tendency to speak ill of others. In these cases, the best option is indifference. Staying away from these ideas is a good way of not giving them an importance that they lack, while avoiding the possibility of generating the confrontation that would appear in such cases. confrontation that would arise if these ideas were to be questioned.which would only feed the hostile climate that this type of attitude favors.

3. Learn to take the reins of the conversation.

Unless the toxic person has a role that clearly allows him/her to make decisions that affect you, for example if he/she is your boss, you can limit yourself to not letting him/her impose his/her dominance on the dynamics of the conversation.

To do this, let the dialogue return to its normal channels when he wants to change the subject according to his interests, and ignore any comments that have nothing to do with what the conversation should theoretically be about.

4. Have clear red lines

Although as a general rule, indifference is the best recipe for dealing with toxic people, it is also necessary to know what kind of actions or attitudes are unacceptable. Things like physical assaults, attempts to publicly humiliate someone, or spreading serious lies to defame someone are examples of this, regardless of whether they are something that is done on an ongoing basis or not..

5. Attend to their attempts to redeem themselves.

The fact that someone can be defined as a toxic person does not imply that they will always behave unethically and immorally. Reality is beyond the fictional stories in which the good guy is very good and the bad guy is very bad.

Therefore, even they can show signs of repentance, trying to redeem themselves. In these cases, it is good to it is good to reward these efforts and adopt a closer and more empathetic attitude towards them. with them. Hopefully, learning to behave in these ways can improve the way they relate to others.

However, in the absence of these cases, it is best to follow the following advice.

6. By default, ignore them

Ignoring them is the default option. This does not mean that you should ignore them.This does not mean that you should ignore them, since this can be considered a form of mistreatment if for example you do not even respond to anything they say. Nor does it mean that you should avoid them in a literal sense, because this would greatly condition your lifestyle, on the one hand, and on the other hand you would give them importance.

The most appropriate is, in general, to react only to those actions on their part that are clearly good and admirable, or to those that, given the context, are necessary because the purpose of these interactions is to benefit you or other people. For example, at work, in handling paperwork, etc.