Poison Friends

You know what I'm talking about. We've all had them. Those friendships that hurt more than they help. Those people that look like friends, but with the passage of time you realise that perhaps they aren't.

How do you know?

Well, these 'friendships can either make you feel bad with subtle putdowns, doubt yourself, leave you hanging, show a fickleness that makes them undependable or a number of other things... A slow seeping type of poison.

Well, we've all had them, but we don't all respond in the same way. I have a friend that had a poison friend so she 'broke up with her' in a very civilized way. I've known others to just ignore people until they go away.

I've never been very good at getting rid of poison friends. I always try to see something good in someone and I think that any friendship can be a good thing - but in recent years I'm beginning to see that's just a little too idealistic.

So I'm coming round - but I've discovered something about myself - I'm not good at saying goodbye. With the exception of the 7 year relationship I was in - post high school, I've never broken up with a guy (mind you, I've only had two serious relationships since..) I just kind of hang in there, trying to fix things. Why? I don't know - its this fixing compulsion I have...

But eventually even I get to a point. The point where I KNOW it has to stop. That the expense to myself is no where near the potential upside that's left. But seeing as I'm not good at goodbye, I'm not really very well equipped for those situations.

So what do I do?
I revert to the behaviours I learnt as a child: I pick a fight.

No one wins.
Well, maybe I do - because now I have a reason for never speaking to someone again and I'm not the bad guy.

Them hanging up on me is like winning the lottery...

Oh yeah - I got hung up on Sunday night.
Nuff said.