Creating boundaries between yourself and toxic people is a difficult task. But Kate Benoit went the extra mile by shutting toxic people out of her life, and also most of her good friends.
Way to set boundaries, Kate!
Kate says that after years of being taken advantage of by toxic friends and family members, she knew it was time to put her foot down. “I deleted those contacts from my phone, and then I deleted all the other contacts from my phone because really, why should anyone be asking me for anything?”
Whenever a number calls or texts Benoit, she immediately blocks them.
“You have to protect yourself from psychic vampires,” she explains. “They will literally deplete all of your resources.”
In the friend purge, Benoit cut out a toxic acquaintance who we’ll call “June.” June would call on Benoit to get her through all of her life’s difficulties – breakups, death of a family member, even buying pregnancy tests – but when Benoit was in the hospital last April, June didn’t even send a get well text. So Benoit has cut off all communication with her, and also communication with her own sister who was with her at the hospital.
“I’m not going to pour all my energy into people who don’t give anything back,” says Benoit. Under her new strategy, she is no longer speaking to a friend who was always talking about her behind her back and she also no longer talks to a friend who was there for her when her father died.
“At a certain point, you just have to know who your priorities are,” says Benoit. “And from now on, I’m prioritizing me.”
