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Cleaning Up Your Social Circle: How to Know When Someone is Toxic and Doesn’t Belong in Your Life

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Seton Hall chapter.

Maybe you’re a senior and graduation has you more reflective than usual. Maybe you’re a freshman and your first year of college has left you a changed, more mature version of your high school self. In either scenario, here are a few important traits to recognize in someone who you need to cut out of your life in your retrospective dilemma:

Invalidating

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/494833077792559292/

When you’re trying to tell someone about the crappy day you’ve been having and how mentally draining it is, the last thing you want is someone telling you your concerns are invalid because their problems are more pressing than yours. They gotta GO.

Get upset when you make plans with other people

Sometimes it’s important to remember that, as terrible as it may sound, you are not the center of this person’s universe. They have family, other friends, and other responsibilities than to listen to you whine about how you can’t hang out with them for the 12th time this week.

Belittling

Sometimes it’s easy for people to get lost in the self-depricating humor of the generation and turn toward rude even borderline mean attitudes to show friendship. It’s important to have little moments of appreciation in between those joking pushes to remind someone you still care about them, even if it seems like your entire relationship revolves around this sense of humor.

Sophie Gochtovtt

Seton Hall '21

Sophie is a double major in Visual and Sound Media and Creative Writing at Seton Hall. She is an active sophomore- involved in Alpha Sigma Tau, English Club, and Pirate TV. In her free time, she enjoys watching movies, reading books and writing stories.