Human life is nothing without relationships. Ideally, relationships should be of the kind that nurtures the essence of our soul, kindle a positive fire within our heart and put a smile on our faces for the simple reason that they exist in our life. But sadly, this is hardly the case all the time. It’s not uncommon for people to get caught up in relationships that do just the opposite of their ideal expectations. Such relationships disrupt your physical, mental, and emotional well-being, gradually drain the energy out of yourself and leave you with little control and power over your own life. These relationships are called toxic relationships, rightly so because of the way they poison the lives of the people involved.

5 Warning Signs of a Toxic Relationship

To filter out the toxic relationships from your life, you shouldn’t only be looking into your romantic life. A toxic relationship could be hiding away anywhere. You may be into one with a friend, a co-worker or even a family member. So how do you identify it? Here are 5 telling signs of a toxic relationship:

1. Criticism is commonplace and often comes from a place of disdain and ill-will rather than from a place of love. The criticism is not constructive aiming to build you up, but is rather destructive aiming to tear you down.

2. You start feeling negative energy whenever you’re around this person. Your muscles tense up, your brows turn into a frown or you can’t breathe as freely as you normally do. The negative aura of a toxic relationship affects how we talk, breathe and behave.

3. You just don’t feel comfortable, and more importantly yourself, around this person. You feel like you’re trading away parts of who you are in order to become something that you don’t even identify with.

4. There’s a lot of passive aggression in toxic relationships. People involved tend to hold grudges and complaints to heart, instead of letting them out in the open. This is often the cause of lack of peace in such relationships.

5. There is only taking, no giving, in the relationship. The person expects your energy, attention and emotions, but never feels the need to reciprocate the same to you. As a result, you’re left drained mentally and emotionally.

4 Ways Toxic Relationships Are Ruining Your Life

If by now you’ve analyzed your life and managed to identify a toxic relationship that’s haunting it, it’s time for you to do something about it, ideally to step completely away from it. This is not the kind of relationship to invest your time and energy in. Here’s how it might be slowly but surely ruining your life:

1. Your self-esteem and self-confidence have gone down the drain. You start finding faults within yourself and forgetting your own worth.

2. You become so comfortable with toxic relationships that you start expecting similar experiences from your healthy relationships too, destroying them in the process.

3. To numb the pain and suffering, you turn to substances like alcohol and drugs for temporary relief. You never know when these occasional habits might turn into abuse.

4. Stress takes over your life, and stress is the root cause of many physical health disorders such as weak immune system and heart diseases.

Take These 5 Steps to End the Toxic Relationships of Your Life

Cutting out a relationship from life isn’t easy, but its what needs to be done once you start noticing the signs of a toxic relationship. Here is some advice on how you can end the toxic relationships in your life and start making a positive change in your living:

1. Begin to think objectively about the relationship, maybe even from the point of view of a third-party observer. Does it look like a healthy relationship from the perspective of an onlooker? A “no” answer should give you the affirmation you need to move on from the relationship.

2. Believe with all your heart that you do deserve better. Most of the times, it’s only our own personal demons that are holding us into the shackles of toxic relationships. So tell yourself that regardless of all things, you deserve positive and unconditional love in your life.

3. Hold a face-to-face conversation with the person involved. Calmly convey your feelings about how you want your relationship to be like going forward. Avoid letting any bitterness creep into the conversation.

4. Surround yourself with positive and encouraging company, whether from family, friends or even professionals if need be. Never hesitate to seek help where needed.

5. Engage yourself in activities, hobbies and interests that you love and have always wanted to pursue. The idea is not to distract yourself from the pain of ending the relationship, but instead to realize how much you’re capable of loving yourself.