Toxic relationships damage your health more than you realize.
When you surround yourself with people who are deceitful, manipulative, or abusive, you harm your mental and emotional wellbeing. Often, people do so without realizing as they do not initially recognize that their friends or partners are toxic. The reason for this is simply the fact that toxic individuals are skilled at hiding their true colors. However, there are several signs that someone in your life is not good for you. The most obvious sign is not feeling good around them or after being with them. If you find yourself feeling upset, insecure, or angry after spending time with them, something is not right. Kind-hearted, genuine, and loving people will not make you feel negative emotions.
According to Kristen Fuller M.D., you must leave toxic relationships if you want to protect yourself.
Recognizing that you are in a toxic relationship is the first step to improving your mental health and the second step is leaving that toxic relationship but the final step to bettering yourself is making sure you are dealing with your internal mental and emotional trauma in a positive manner.
You should never feel guilty for prioritizing your health and wellbeing.
Admittedly, it can be difficult to sever ties with the toxic people in your life. This is especially true if you love and care about them deeply. Nevertheless, you must remind yourself that if they loved you as you do them, they would never hurt you. Taking this further, they would never manipulate, gaslight, use, bully and/or lie to you. Although it will be painful to let them go, you need to know that you deserve better. You deserve people who treat you with love, kindness, and respect. In other words, you should never feel guilty about letting go of those who mistreat you.
Surround yourself with positive people.
After you cut out the toxic people in your life, you will undoubtedly feel upset and angry. It may (and most likely will) take you some time to heal from the pain you have been put through. Therefore, you need to make sure that you are being kind to yourself throughout your healing process. Once you have accepted what has happened, you will be able to move on. Getting rid of negative energy and toxic people will make room for better things. It will allow you to surround yourself with people who are good for you and your overall wellbeing.