How to behave towards toxic people: 6 tips

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

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

• Related article: "The 9 signs to identify and neutralize a toxic person"

How to deal with toxic people

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

We have some leeway to decide what to do in each situation, but we also

we are greatly influenced by our personality and the way in which we have learned to relate to each other with the environment and with others. We are conditioned by elements that are beyond our control.

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

1. Don't give them undeserved attention

In many cases, the negative attitudes that toxic people transmit are just a way of gaining power from influence by getting people around you emotionally involved in conflicts, ideally by going over to your side. Create problems where there are none through fictions based on lies or exaggerations.

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

2. Don't take it personally

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

• You may be interested in: "Conflict psychology: theories that explain wars and violence"

3. Learn to take control of the conversation

Unless the toxic person has a role that clearly allows them to make decisions that affect you, such as For example, if he is your boss, you can limit yourself to not letting him impose his dominance in the dynamics of the conversation.

For it, return the dialogue to its normal channels when they want to change the subject according to their interests, and ignore any comments that do not have to do with what the conversation should theoretically be about.

4. Be clear about the red lines

Although as a general rule, indifference is the best recipe for 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 continuously or not.

5. He attends to his attempts to redeem himself

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

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

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

6. By default, ignore them

Ignore them is the default option. This does not mean that you should leave them empty, since this can be considered a form of abuse 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 you would give them importance.

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