8 Reasons Why You Should Cut Off Toxic People from Your Life (and How to Do it)

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Nearly all of us have had to deal with toxic people in our lives at some point, whether they are colleagues, friends, family members, or partners in romantic relationships.

But you don’t have to interact with these types of people. It is okay to cut off toxic people from your life.

Since they can affect your life in many negative ways, it is important to learn how to cut off toxic people from your life as soon as possible.

In this article, we shall discuss some of the reasons why you should cut off toxic people from your life, how to do it, and when it is time to distance yourself. But first, do you know who is a toxic person? or how to recognize the signs that someone is toxic?

Read on to learn more…

Jump to a Section:
* Definition of a toxic person
* Signs that someone is toxic
* Reasons why you should cut off toxic people from your life
* How to cut off toxic people from your life

Who is a Toxic Person?

How do you define a toxic person? What is a toxic person like? How can you tell that someone is toxic?

A toxic person is anyone whose actions or words affect your personal or professional life negatively. The person may have reasons for being toxic, with most having nothing to do with you, but their own mental health issues, traumas, and insecurities.

No matter their reasons, it is good to know how to tell when it is time to cut off a toxic person from your life by recognizing the signs of toxicity in someone. Below are some signs that someone is toxic and why you should cut them off from your life.

15 Signs Someone is Toxic

1. They are pessimistic or always complaining about something
2. They use you to get what they want
3. They abuse you emotionally, physically, or sexually
4. They are attention seekers or drama magnets
5. You feel like you always have to defend yourself and your actions to them
6. They are always needy for your attention, affection, validation, advice, support, and more
7. They gossip about you or others all the time
8. They never admit mistakes or apologize when they do something wrong
9. They are a bad influence, for example, they influence you to harass others, commit crimes, or abuse substances
10. You sense negative vibes around them
11. They are envious or jealous of you
12. They are overly critical of you and others
13. They are selfish, self-centered, and may have the main character syndrome
14. They never respect your boundaries or feelings
15. You can’t count on them for support because they disappear when you need them

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Why You Should Cut Off Toxic People from Your Life

1. Improved mental health

Having to deal with a toxic person every day can negatively affect your mental health. You may feel stressed out, anxious, or depressed whenever you are around them, especially if someone is abusive, pessimistic, or a drama magnet.

Better mental health is one of the reasons why you should cut off toxic people from your life. You will have peace of mind and be happier when toxic people are out of your life.

In addition, you will get the opportunity to make better new friends, start a new healthy relationship, or get a new job in a non-toxic work environment, improving your mental health even more; that is why it is good to cut off toxic people from your life.

2. Security and safety

Toxic people, such as abusers, drama magnets, and those who influence you to do bad things like crimes and substance abuse, put your life at risk.

In addition, someone who is envious or jealous of you can be dangerous as they might not only abuse you emotionally and verbally but physically too.

If you have such characters around you daily, your safety and security are threatened. For example, what if someone who is a drama magnet drags you into their drama, and you get caught in the crossfire? Or what if someone who is physically abusive to you actually kills you?

Your safety and security are some of the main reasons why you should cut off toxic people from your life for good. It is an act of self-preservation.

READ ALSO: 6 Reasons Why You Should Keep Your Personal Life Private (and How to Do It)

3. Better chances of success

Any person in a healthy relationship wants their partner to succeed in life. As such, they would offer various types of support and not feel envious, say hurtful words, criticize, try to bring the other person down, or block their path to success. But that is what toxic people do.

A toxic person will do things that demoralize you, affect your self-esteem or sense of self-worth, distract you, lower your self-confidence, slow your progress, and block opportunities because they don’t want you to succeed. They want you to be worse off than them or to remain stuck in life.

A better chance at succeeding is one of the reasons why you should cut off toxic people from your life. Without these individuals around you, you will have more self-confidence, a positive attitude, and the motivation to chase your dreams.

4. Saving money

Cutting off toxic people from your life can benefit you financially too! You will get to save the money and other resources you would have given to borrowers or used to buy things for people who don’t appreciate or reciprocate your efforts.

Most times, the borrowers disappear as soon as you lend them money and never pay it back, only to come back when they need a favor from you again. Cutting toxic people out of your life is a good financial decision.

When you cut off toxic people, such as the users, needy, and disappearing act types, you will no longer have to spend money or lose it by giving it to individuals who are not worth it. As such, you will have more to use on your own expenses and to save or invest for your future. Saving money is a good reason why you should cut off toxic people from your life.

READ ALSO: 10 Reasons Why You Should Stop Being Too Nice

5. Improved relationships

Toxic people can also affect your relationships negatively, whether it is your relationship with yourself, your family, your romantic partner, or friends.

For example, the person may always gossip or complain about you or others, start fights with you or others, and they could even try to keep you from interacting with other people you care about.

Furthermore, being associated with a toxic person can harm your reputation, affecting how others view you and the respect they give you. Improved relationships are one of the best reasons why you should cut off toxic people from your life. 

Without these types of people in your life, you can now focus on other people you love and form new healthy relationships with yourself and others.

It is good to cut toxic people out of your life as early as possible to avoid having regrets later about the other relationships you sacrificed for them.

6. To protect your energy

Another good reason why you should cut off toxic people from your life is that it will be a way to protect your energy from depletion and negativity.

Needy, drama magnets, attention seekers, envious, and self-centered types of toxic people are examples of energy vampires because you may feel drained after spending time with them.

The energy vampire types of toxic people can be anyone, from colleagues, friends, a spouse, and family members, to neighbors.

Perhaps you had to listen to them complain for hours, fight with them, do activities with/for them, compete with them, or offer various types of social support, which could make you feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and drained of your emotional and physical energy.

It is important to cut off toxic people from your life to protect your energy from depletion and negativity.

Note that it is not selfish or snobbish to distance yourself from toxic people. You are simply choosing yourself, for your own good and for the sake of the other people you care about.

READ ALSO: 10 Ways to Cope When Everything Feels Heavy and Overwhelming

7. Better physical health

If the toxic person you are dealing with is not physically or sexually abusive but is toxic in other ways, you may be wondering how their behavior can affect your physical health.

But just like mental health, having to interact with various types of toxic people every day could take a toll on your physical health. Studies show that people in unhealthy relationships are at a higher risk of heart disease, have poor sleep quality, eat unhealthily, have a slower healing process, and experience immunity issues.

You may also neglect self-care while being at the beck and call of someone else or due to poor mental health and low energy levels. Additionally, you could get injured when someone abuses you or if you get involved in someone else’s drama.

Your health should always be one of your top priorities in life. As such, you should get rid of anything that puts it at risk, even people. Improved physical health is one of the main reasons why you should cut off toxic people from your life.

8. Saving time

As you enjoy the benefits of cutting off toxic people from your life in helping you protect your energy and save money, you also stop wasting time with individuals who don’t add any value to your life. You may only remain with a few good friends, but they are better than having many people you know and spend time with who are not worth even a second.

One of the best reasons why you should cut off toxic people from your life is that you will save valuable time.

Life is short and unpredictable. As such, you should spend your time here wisely, with people who positively influence your life, doing what makes you happy and builds you up.

You should choose quality over quantity when deciding the people to surround yourself with and spend time with. Cutting off toxic people from your life and remaining with a few loyal, supportive, respectful individuals is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

You will save the time you used to waste hanging out with toxic people, thus, have more time to spend by yourself, with loved ones, and on the activities you love.

READ ALSO: 10 Reasons Why Time Is Important in Life (the Value of Time)

How to Cut Off Toxic People from Your Life

Now that you know the benefits of cutting off toxic people from your life, how exactly do you break ties with them? Is there an easy way to cut off toxic people from your life? The answer to this question is NO.

It is not easy to cut toxic people off from your life. Most times, these people have been an important part of your life for a long time, perhaps since birth like in the case of toxic parents and siblings, and thus, breaking ties with them completely will probably hurt and be a hard thing to do.

Making people aware that they are showing signs of toxicity and giving them a chance to change their behavior may also not work. But enough is enough! It is time for you to get your power back from toxic people. For all the above-discussed reasons why it is good to cut off toxic people from your life, you have to distance yourself from them for your sake, even though it will be a challenging process.

Nonetheless, this is a personal decision. So, before cutting someone off your life completely, ensure it is what you really want to do and consider factors such as the nature of your relationship with the person, your history, the value they add to your life, your ability to tolerate their behavior, and their capacity to change.

Here is how to cut off toxic people from your life for good;

1. Establish clear boundaries with the toxic person
2. Find a way to emotionally detach yourself from them
3. Ghost the toxic person and don’t feel bad about it
4. Create physical distance between them and you and start over, e.g., by moving out or to a different town
5. Surround yourself with people who influence your life positively
6. Avoid getting dragged into their drama
7. Be less available or totally unavailable to do activities together
8. Form new healthy relationships and strengthen your support system
9. Unfollow, unfriend, or block toxic people on social media
10. Seek professional help from a therapist, boss, HR, the police, parents, or a lawyer

READ ALSO: 7 Things You Can Do Now That Your Future Self Will Thank You For

Final Thoughts

And there you have them! Above are some of the reasons why you should cut off toxic people from your life, how to do it and when it is time to do it.

Despite how often it is recommended for you to make this positive change, cutting out toxic people from your life is probably one of the hardest things you will ever do.

Sometimes it is not even possible to break ties with someone completely, especially if they are difficult ex-partners with shared child custody, family members, colleagues, and friends with whom you have other friends in common.

Cutting off toxic people from your life is also challenging for many people due to the emotional ties and the effort or time spent building and trying to maintain a relationship with someone. But it has to be done.

Use the above reasons why you should cut off toxic people from your life as motivation to finally do it. Identifying the signs that someone is toxic and having the courage to follow through with the decision to cut them off your life will benefit you and the people who look up to you as well as those who care about your well-being.

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