Our beautiful world is full of negative people wanting to pull each other down. It’s surprising that some people actually want to see others suffer.
While some do this unintentionally, others find happiness in bringing down their fellow human beings. Putting it another way, these jealous people are happy only when they can cause harm to others.
So, in life, you need to be on alert to the maneuvers and machinations of such people. If you are aware of what they are scheming, you can manage to stay a step ahead of them and escape their evil plans. The best way to achieve this is by looking out for signs – signs someone is trying to bring you down.
This article explores the complicated world of relationships and lists easy-to-spot signs someone is trying to bring you down. After all, it’s said that forewarned is forearmed.
How to recognize someone is trying to tear you down?
It’s hard to slot people as good or bad, as sometimes good people come with a bad outward appearance and bad ones come disguised as good people. And, rarely do people appear in black and white. They are usually in different shades of gray.
If you adopt the strategy of avoiding all kinds of toxic and jealous people, you may have to run away from the entire world. This is not good for you either. Instead, why not train your mind to detect the signs of toxicity in the people around you?
When you feel that someone is trying to bring you down or you have friends who put you down subtly, you can take appropriate action. If you find a toxic friend repeating the same toxic behavior, you can blacklist them and avoid them. This looks like a better plan than avoiding everyone all the time.
Here are some common signs when someone puts you down in front of others.
1. They have negative energy
Our world with our life in it is a fair mix of positive and negative people, events, situations, and things. You cannot live a life avoiding either. Despite your best efforts, sometimes things go wrong. However, for a normal person, this is balanced out in the long run by good things.
However, for toxic people, it seems only bad things happen or there are only bad people in their lives. They are focused on negativity. So, naturally, they attract people and incidents with negative energy. In fact, they tend to see the world through a negative lens.
When you are near such jealous people, the negativity may permeate into you as well. The best way for you is to be careful about them and if possible stay away from them.
Negative energy is so strong and compelling that it overrides positivity. When you’re near a toxic friend, their gloomy, pessimistic, adverse, or harmful outlook on life will seep through to you as well. Keeping distance is the suggested tactic to deal with such jealous people.
2. They project the image of being positive
This kind of behavior has a name – toxic positivity. This may sound like an oxymoron, but sadly this is common enough among the jealous people around us. The only way to escape it is by being aware of it and detecting it early on.
There is no doubt about the benefits of a positive mind. If you already have a negative mindset, you need to uproot that and replace it with a positive mindset. Just faking it won’t make a toxic person positive. Toxic positivity is more about exuding an appearance of positivity when the negative mentality is still present inside.
This becomes all the more toxic when someone tries to repress your negative mindset. This makes the person dangerously toxic. The worst part is you won’t know how toxic the person is because they will appear as a positive person in their actions.
Such jealous people sometimes try to compete with you about how much more positive they are than you. All these can bring you down.
3. They derail your life
You have set your goals and you are working steadily towards achieving them. Then, out of nowhere, this toxic person enters your life, convincing you to change the course of your life. Ultimately, you end up losing your way.
Have you ever come across this kind of toxic person? They are common enough in our society. Be it your relationship or your career, they will offer you unasked advice. They may even trap you in a toxic relationship. If you listen to them and make changes in your life, you are in trouble.
These jealous people come masked as your well-wishers who want only good things for you.
4. They deceive and manipulate you
In short, gaslight you. Gaslighting is another New Age terminology denoting the tendency of a toxic person to make others doubt themselves and their sanity. Again, this is another negative behavior commonly found in jealous people nowadays.
Such people will make you believe that what you see, hear, and believe is wrong. They are so persuasive and convincing that you will start believing what they say is true. You will begin to blame yourself for your problems.
If the toxic friend is triggering self-hate in you, wake up to the fact that they are gaslighting you. Stay away from such people, let alone get trapped in a toxic relationship with them.
5. They call your beliefs rubbish
Every person has the right to have their own set of beliefs. Others can agree or disagree with them. It’s okay to even discuss or argue with them on this. But no one has any right to bring you down for your beliefs.
A toxic friend may persuade and mock you about your beliefs until you agree to follow theirs. They will hound you until you relent. That is taking it too far and making it too personal.
You should neither allow this to happen nor should you keep the company of people with negative energy.
6. They are good at playing the victim
These kinds of toxic people victimize you but act as if they are the victims. That is the ultimate deceptiveness.
Their sick mentality cannot tolerate the focus shifting to you. They want the attention to remain with themselves. They will do anything to achieve this end. They will torture you for their pleasure, but play victim to remain the center of attention. This way, they can deny you an opportunity to be the victim and gain sympathy from others.
The situation is so twisted and complicated that you should stay away from such people as soon as you can identify them.
7. They shame you and damage your reputation
In this highly interconnected age, shaming and damaging the reputation of another person can be done easily even without revealing one’s own identity. The internet comes with a lot of advantages and even more weaknesses.
Such toxic people may take advantage of their proximity to you and the inside knowledge they have of you to take you down. They may use any kind of ammo to cause your downfall, including your appearance, relationships, beliefs, and choices in life.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are misused by them for their gains. Tools like PhotoShop come in handy for them to manipulate and create materials to bring you down.
The crookedness of such jealous people is not confined to online alone. They also work with people to turn them against you. Once they get done, you will be isolated and ostracized among your own friends.
Bottom line
A toxic person is good at making you insecure and nervous. They entertain themselves by toying with your emotions. Despite knowing there are such jealous people out there in the world and you need to stay alert, you still fall into their trap because you are a trusting kind of person.
Like everyone, you too need a friend to confide in and share your joys and sorrow. These people know how to exploit your need for a friend and bring you down when you least expect it.
When someone is trying to bring you down, the only way to escape the clutches of such evil minds is to stay alert to these signs and keep a distance from them.