3 Toxic Life Situations You Want to Avoid at All Costs

There are many toxic situations we can become stuck in, and some are more toxic than others

The worst scenarios can kill our confidence, destroy our self-belief, and, if we allow them to continue, cause us to live out our life having never realized our true potential, becoming a shadow of our original self.

If you ever find yourself in one of these situations, you need to do everything in your power to step away. If you don’t, you risk losing your joy for living and your very ambition to become something more.

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Sometimes it's better to end something & try to start something new than imprison yourself in hoping for the impossible.

– Karen Salmansohn

If you’re fortunate enough to not have become locked into a toxic situation before, you need to avoid the three scenarios below at all costs. And if you are experiencing them, get out now and never look back.

1. Living with someone who degrades you on a daily basis

Likely the most toxic situation of all, living with someone who treats you like trash will slowly but surely degrade your confidence and self-belief until there’s nothing left of you.

There are many ways this can happen, some unfortunately not within your control if we're talking about your parents early on in your life. But if you catch yourself in this kind of situation later in adulthood, then you need to devote all your resources to getting out as soon as possible.

Often, when you’re in this kind of situation, you’re depending at least partly on the other person financially and can find it difficult, if not seemingly impossible, to figure out a way out.

However, I’ve found that this is mostly in our head. When you make that leap, somehow, things always work out. Don’t hesitate to get out of a situation like this just because you’re not sure how you’re going to make it work. We as human beings are incredibly resourceful, often much more than we give ourselves credit for.

2. Working with people who discount your worth

Whether from your boss or colleagues, another unfortunately common toxic situation is working with people who treat you like you’re not of value.

The office is a place where competency is tested daily and results matter, so facing a toxic environment within a company is more probable than facing a toxic situation in any other  area of life. Unfortunately, many of us were never taught any manners, and take our frustration out on our employees and coworkers when things don’t work out the way we had hoped (and sometimes even when they do).

Whether you’ve just begun working at a company where one or more people treat you like you’re worthless or you've worked at a company like this for some time, you need to get out as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter what it takes, plan your exit now and never look back.

These kind of environments seep into your consciousness no matter how hard you try to keep them out, so eventually, you’re going to turn this negative dialogue into your own self-talk.

3. Having friends who don’t believe in you

As we grow and evolve, we learn to choose friends based as much on character as similar interests. However, growing up, we often make friends primarily out of circumstance and interest.

But what often happens is these people end up not being so supportive later on, when you are working hard on realizing your dreams.

People can be too comfortable, and they don’t like someone pointing out their own lack of success and ambition. Very quickly, those whom you thought were your good friends become toxic associations who just as well rather you forget you ever had any ambitions to begin with.

If you catch yourself in this sort of situation at any point, I hate to break it to you, but these people were never your real friends, just buddies or girlfriends that were using each other -- and you -- to kill time. Get out now and do it quickly, before you let them convince you that you’re somehow crazy for wanting something better out of life.

Value yourself, your life, and your potential enough to avoid each of these situations at all costs. You have the ability to do something incredible with your life, so don’t waste it away being slowly degraded by a toxic situation.