According to Stacy Kaiser, author of How to Be a Grownup, there are three easy signs to know it’s time to break up with a ‘friend’ who behaves like an enemy. Firstly, you get very little, or nothing, back or nothing for what you give and it’s one-sided. Secondly, you spend too much time gossiping about her. If she’s the topic of conversation regularly and has you so frustrated that you can’t think straight. Lastly, you’ve already gone a round or two and forgiven her in the past, but there comes a point when you realise it’s a pattern.
How to deal with a toxic friend While 37 percent of those surveyed said they hid friends on Facebook when they were upset or sick of them, others dealt with toxic friends in a variety of direct and indirect ways.
Fifty-four percent of people said they took time to cool off after a toxic tussle while 53 percent of people made a conscious decision to downgrade their toxic friend to acquaintance status.
David Hochman, a 43-year-old journalist from Los Angeles with thousands of Facebook, Twitter, professional and real-life friends, says he's encountered self-absorption, mean-spiritedness and "emotional black holes" on a number of occasions.
"You either cut them out of your life completely or face the demon," he says. "There's always some reason that they're doing that behavior. If you can understand that behavior, you can defuse it."
When compassion and understanding fail, though, he's opted for the downgrade.
"I've downgraded from the inner circle to the outer circle," he says. "I'll see them twice a year instead of once a month."
