5 Types Of Emotional Vampires
Like the rest of the bonds that we develop throughout our lives, emotional bonds grow in one way or another depending on how they are nurtured. Naturally, if we feed them constant sadness, envy, complaints or anger, what we will do is create unhealthy bonds. There are relationships that can be excessively harmful for us, generating a drama of enormous dimensions and threatening our emotional well-being. This happens when we are in contact with some of the types of emotional vampires that exist.
The truth is that, without effective self-defense strategies to keep them at bay, victims of toxic people develop unhealthy behaviors and symptoms (overeating, isolating themselves, changing moods easily, feeling constantly fatigued…).
They have been called in many ways: toxic people, emotional vampires or emotional predators, parasites, etc. In truth, although this classification has no scientific basis, there are people who exhaust us and make us enter a state of resignation and regret that is difficult for us to cope with. Intentionally or not, they make us feel depressed, overwhelmed, angry, or even annihilated.
Below we define 5 types of emotional vampires that intoxicate our emotions, sucking our energies like a vampire and stalking us as if it were a predator.
1. The passive-aggressive person
This first of the emotional vampire types expresses anger with a smile on their face or with excessive concern, but they always remain calm. They are experts at dressing up and sugarcoating hostility. We have all used this technique at times but, nevertheless, these people abuse it, causing us to lose our papers before them.
The best self-defense is to direct their behavior by fully maintaining our convictions, creating limits and enforcing them. We deserve to be treated with love and sincerity and we must not allow ourselves to be spoken to “as if our lives were being spared.”
2. The narcissistic person
Everything revolves around them, since they believe they are the navel of the world. They are self-centered, vain, and starved for admiration and attention. They can appear as intelligent and charming people, until their status as guru, role model, or intellectual authority is threatened.
Since their motto is ” me first,” getting angry and / or assertively expressing our needs will have no effect on them. Since they often lack empathy or have it well buried, they may have a difficult time understanding unconditional love outside of themselves.
So the best self-defense is to enjoy their good qualities but be realistic in our expectations of them. In the meantime, don’t let them crush you or make you feel inferior, understand that their narcissism is their need.
3. The angry person
This third of the types of emotional vampires deals in the office of accusing, attacking, humiliating, criticizing and creating conflict. They are addicted to anger, to withholding things, to punishing others. They freeze you and beat you, breaking you into a thousand pieces with their fury.
The best self-defense is to protect your self-esteem so that your anger does not take it away. Take your time, create pauses, and breathe. Try to stay neutral and balanced in the face of his fury attacks and don’t respond until you are centered. In this way, you will be able to disarm this person, letting him expand and then expose your vision, making him recognize and attend to your position.
4. The martyr person
They exist everywhere. The martyrs are the kings and queens of drama. They know how to make you feel bad about something by pressing the insecurity buttons and pouring salt on your wounds. The best self-defense is to leave behind the idea that we have to be perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. But if you really feel guilty about something, then move away and cry if necessary.
You can also respond to their attacks with a positive statement like the following: “I understand your point of view, but when you say -you hurt my feelings. I would appreciate it if you didn’t keep doing it ”.
5. The jealous and gossiping person
They are the nosy people, the ones who delight in talking about others behind their backs, dragging their reputations and spreading malicious rumors. When they do this, everyone around them feels humiliated and belittled.
The best self-defense against these emotional vampires is not to care about what that person says about us and not to take their gossip personally. The correct attitude is to climb a step and ignore them. Also, if we are in a group and they start talking about someone it is best to change the subject and never share any gossip.
However, it is appropriate to make it clear that you know what they are doing and that it is not doing you any good. We can go to them and say something like, “Your comments are hurtful. How would you feel if they said that about you? Please stop talking about me. “
Identify the people who cause you emotional pain and generate your own self-defense mechanisms so that your psychological well-being is not charged. Have you spotted any of these types of emotional vampires around you?
