10 People You Should Stay Away From To Protect Your Peace

“Anyone who tries to act too close/familiar with you too fast. Anyone who showers you with gifts out of nowhere. Some people may be sincere and just trying too hard, but many MANY abusive and predatory people use these tactics to worm their way in close to you.” — Embryw

“People who can’t stand any level of unhappiness. I don’t mean they’re in a loveless marriage, or without true friends, or in dire distress. I mean, if you go out with a group of friends, and one friend wants to go to a steakhouse, but the group decides on sushi, and they spend THE WHOLE NIGHT pouting, upset, mentioning it at every turn. The friend that can’t be uncomfortable for one moment, even if everything else is going relatively okay (ex: spending the day at an amusement park, but it’s warm out/there are long lines). Life is not going to be comfortable all the time, and if they’re a chronic complainer, avoid at all costs.” — Chemical-Watch-9129

“Toxic people are usually able to conceal their toxic traits when they want to make a good impression. Yet here’s one red flag they seldom conceal: when something goes wrong they don’t look for a process solution; instead they look for someone to blame. Watch out for someone who goes around finding scapegoats. Keep a polite distance if you can’t avoid them completely.” — doublestitch

“People who have no self-accountability or can do no wrong. They’ll ruin your life and everyone else’s life to avoid looking like a bad guy. They’ll set up people to take the fall for their own mistakes. Surround yourself with people who you can share good news with and will take accountability for their actions. You won’t have to worry much about their honesty if they’ll come forward with their shortcomings.” — PINHEADLARRY5

“Pathological victims, doomers. People who feel miserable all the time and resent you for being happy every now and then.” — Bonhomme7h

“Narcissists. They will drain you of every ounce of life and it will still never be enough. They’ll kill your spirit, feed off your dreams, strangle any inkling of happiness, drag you down, and make themselves the center of your universe… then scoff at you and mock you for the empty shell you’ve become, abandon you, and discard you like trash. They move on to new suppliers to feed their ego, at least, until they, too, run out of love and attention… and if you let them, they’ll casually return to your life to wreak havoc all over again, as if nothing ever happened. They’ll belittle, diminish and dismiss the things that make you happy, that make you you. The things that bring you joy will either mocked be to death or inaccessible to you until you give up trying altogether. And everything will be a competition — everything. Basic chores? They can do it better. Finances? Childcare? They can do it better. Breathing? You can’t breathe like them, everyone is jealous of their beautiful breath. Happiness will become a distant memory. You’ll trade joy for misery, abuse, gaslighting, guilt-tripping, blame, dismissiveness, insults and utter non-existence. You’ll demand less and less, in hopes of keeping the peace, until you simply stop asking. They’ll present you with an image of heaven just to trap you in a cycle of hell with them, forever. And they’ll never change.” — MangyTalaxian

“Betrayers. The ones that slide up to you and try to be your best friend while tearing you apart behind your back. The ones that will hit on your partner, your wife or your kids. The ones who will try to be a pal at work but will undermine you every chance they get. In Dante’s Inferno the people right above demons are betrayers.” — wastingtoomuchthyme

“People who make fun of you (or anyone else) for giving a shit: the South Park mindset. People who find any excuse to argue in favor of the status quo. You might agree with them on some issues here and there, but once you start actually caring about something or wanting to change something that affects you… they’ll turn on you as soon as you’re not willing to be chill and apathetic and cynical about everything. Nothing exhausts me as much as people who freak the F out when they hear someone suggest that maybe things could be better than they currently are.” — maintain_composure

“People who are only interested in talking if it’s to bad mouth or gossip about someone else, it gets so completely boring and draining after a while that I had to go low contact with a friend because it just got too much pretending to care about whoever he was shit talking that day..” — FlyHickory

“The ones that make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Trust your instincts. I have always said surround yourself with good people and you’ll be a good person. Surround yourself with bad people and you’ll be a bad one. Simple but true.” — Laritarlisle