You may know lots of people in your close circles who bring joy and positivity into your life. However, many of us also know the odd emotional vampire who can leave you feeling emotionally drained.
These are people that can have a serious negative impact on your life as well as your well-being. This is why it is important to know how you can shield yourself from an emotional vampire.
In this article, we will look at some tips that can help.
What You Can Do
There are various steps you can take to shield yourself from an emotional vampire. This will help to ensure you are not seriously impacted by someone who is emotionally draining.
Some of the steps you can take are:
Avoid Feeling Sorry for Them
One thing that emotional vampires are good at is getting people to feel sorry for them. This is something that can end up being really draining on your emotions if you let it go too far.
Be Skeptical
So, you need to learn how to take what they say with a pinch of salt. Also, you need to avoid feeling unnecessarily sorry for them when they spin sob stories.
Be Careful How Much Attention You Give
Often, what these people do is all centered around gaining pity and attention. The more you give of this, the more they will try to drain you emotionally.
Do Something Positive After Being Around Them
When you have spent time with an emotional vampire, you may find yourself shrouded in negativity. This will then bring you down and leave you feeling very negative about yourself and your own life.
So, you need to ensure you do something positive after spending time with one of these people. This could be anything from spending time with someone you enjoy being with to treating yourself to some pampering.
Reduce the Time You Spend with Them
The more time you spend with an emotional vampire, the more of an impact it will have on your life. However, there may be some people such as close friends and family members that you cannot cut ties with.
What you can do, however, is limit the amount of time you spend with these people and keep it to a minimum. This is especially important if you are already having a hard time in your life, as they will bring you down even more.
Counteract Negativity with Positivity
When you are with an emotional vampire, much of the conversation they initiate with be focused on negative things. This is something that will simply be depressing and frustrating for you to have to listen to.
One thing you can do is counteract this negativity with positivity. Swing the conversation around so that it centers on more positive things instead.
Consider Supporting Them
While some emotional vampires are looking for attention, others may be truly troubled. If this appears to be the case, you may be able to help them with your support.
Be the rock that they need for support and advice, as this can help them. However, try to find positive solutions that can help them rather than letting them infect you with negativity all the time.
Eat a Healthy Diet
It may sound strange, but your diet is something that can also help you handle these emotional vampires. This is because what you eat and drink can impact your mental wellbeing and your ability to deal with these situations.
Have Lots of Positive People Around
Sometimes we can't avoid having some negative emotional vampires in our lives, as they may be family or close friends. However, make sure you also have lots of positive people around to balance things.
Find Out Why
With some emotional vampires, there may be a deep-rooted reason that they are the way they are. So, you may want to delve a little deeper to find out the reason and help them address the issue.
The Need to Be Strong
One thing you do need to keep in mind is that you need to be strong in order to shield yourself from an emotional vampire. This strength will help to ensure your life quality is not reduced as a result of what they do or say.
