Dealing with Toxic Friendships when you’re a teenager can be rough! 

It can be tough to know if your friends are good for you or not. 

It's easy to get confused about what the difference is between a toxic vs a healthy friendship.

Side note: I personally don't love the idea of calling individuals "toxic people," which is why I highly encourage you to call the friendship, not the person toxic.

Watch this video to learn more about what the difference is for teenagers and why I don't love the term "toxic people."

🔔Subscribe here for MORE videos that help teens struggling with mental health: mallorygrimste.com/youtube

Do you ever wonder if your friends are good for you?

Today I’m going to share the differences between toxic and healthy friendships.

I’m really focusing on toxic friendships, not toxic people today. I’m really not the biggest fan of defining people as toxic. When you call a person toxic, it doesn’t feel great and it makes it difficult for you to be empathetic to that person’s experience. You limit their opportunity to learn, grow and change.

And if you believe in karma, you probably don’t want that negative energy going out there, anyway. So I’m going to do my best not to call people toxic, and I encourage you to do the same.

The definition of toxic is: poisonous.

When applied to friendships, it means the relationship is very bad, unpleasant or harmful.

Healthy is defined as promoting good health.

When we talk about healthy friendships, we mean the relationship is beneficial for each person. It doesn’t cause harm and it may even help you grow and develop into a better person.

• Toxic friendships often leave you feeling responsible for things that aren’t your fault.

• Healthy friendships make it easy to accept responsibility when something is your fault

• If you find that your friend doesn’t ever listen to you - sometimes quite literally- you may be in a toxic friendship.

• In a healthy friendship, everyone takes time to be present and listen attentively to each other.

• Toxic friendships don’t take you seriously.

• Healthy friendships consider your point of view- even if they don’t agree with you.

For even more differences, I highly encourage you to watch the entire video here: https://youtu.be/FPXnYM7--RY

If you’re ready to start seeing a therapist, make sure you reach out to someone local to you. If you happen to live in CT or NY, we’d love to connect with you here:

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