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30 Idealized Behaviors That Are Actually Toxic Traits, Pointed Out By TikTok Users
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where someone was acting inappropriate, but no one besides you didn’t seem to notice? And you didn’t say anything just because you felt as if it would just make everything worse? This TikTok user @nayaaford asked her followers to share what is something that people find normal or even idealised when it is an example of toxic behaviour. In her video that has 49.6k likes and almost 3.5k comments, she pointed out that one of the examples of toxic behaviour is wanting a “significant other” who is unfriendly and even mean to other people just because this would mean that they are not going to cheat.
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Minimizing your own experience by saying “others have it way worse than you”. No. My feelings are valid regardless of how worse it could be.
There's a balance here, though; you need to feel like your feelings are valid, but you also need perspective. too much either way is bad.
This kept me afloat after my divorce, yes my personal little world was imploding, everything including my name was gone, but I still had a job, I still had a car that I was able to drive to drive to my job. I could have drinks with the girls and vent. I got my own apartment! I compared my situation to women in other parts of the world where they’re not allowed independence, and it helped me bounce back.
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I actually do this to myself all the time, I've been told a lot that I'm selfish by my parents so I just made it a habit to look at the good things and invalidate my own feelings when something is wrong. It's like optimism but stretched to the point where it's not good anymore
If you break your leg, you won't not go to a hospital to get it fixed because someone else lost their leg right? Same concept should be aplied to mental health issues.
This is LITERALLY why I didn't understand that I was constantly abused, emotionally, physically and sexually, throughout my childhood. I didn't understand that my depression and anxiety were real things that could be treated and managed. All I heard was that my pain wasn't painful enough, my hurts weren't the right/popular kind of hurts, and hey, it's not like I was whipped with a belt or anything, right?
Don't agree with this one. It helps me to deal with my problems to tell myself this. And it doesn't mean your feelings are invalid.
And finally, the person who has it the worst has been found, and they alone are the only one allowed to be sad in the entire world. /s
This is really hard for me to accept. I have a good life and always feel bad when I feel bad. Because people DO have it worse than me. But then once someone said "when you are happy, you don't say, well there are people happier than me so I can't be happy." that helped put it in perspective. But still. I'm trying!
THIS! I used to believe that my mental health issues were not that big of a deal because other people told me they had issues that seemed even bigger. Now I know that my issues are just as important as anyone else's.
Yes! It’s why I’ve only just gone on meds for a mental health issue that’s been a problem since I was a kid.
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It's not a competition. And your feelings are valid. You had a rough day at work, I had a tired night with a teething kid. No one had it worse, we both had our hard time.
I had this the other day - "everyone's found life difficult recently". It's hard enough to admit to struggling without being spoken to like this.
this is sad because psychiatrists actually tell you to do this, to feel better!
My Mother did this yesterday when I was getting my first vaccine dose, basically we had to sit in a waiting room filled with people (for relevance of the story there was one girl there with down syndrome) which made me uncomfortable because I have really bad social anxiety. Anyway, I was stressing out (which was visibly noticeable) and my mom was getting annoyed at me but didn't say anything much at the time, once we got back into the car she started saying how I was embarrassing her and how I need to stop faking illness (I'm not), stuff like that. The she started talking about how that girl with down syndrome was actually upset (she was just complaining about how the shot hurt) and something like I shouldn't act like that when there are people who really need help. So yeah, that hurt.
It's also a form of gaslighting. "You have no right to be sad/hurt/angry because someone else has it worse!"
This is one that hurt my mentality for a very long time. I kept things in because it's not so bad compare to what others could be going through. Somewhere along the long I realized, yeah it totally sucks that other people have to deal with worse things, but this problem I have is bad for me myself and I. If anyone ever tries to tell you others have it worse, say that.
I noticed a lot of my friends self-minimizing early in the pandemic. "I know I don't have a right to complain when some people are jobless right now, but...." Yeah, other people might have it worse but that doesn't mean it's not hard. You're allowed to feel and you're allowed to talk about it, don't minimize anyone elses experience either and you should be fine.
Pathetic. There's always worse and if your feelings are valid, they aren't when you open youself to the world and learn that there's worse in life and keep playing the victim card. Its called growing up.
It encouraged more people to share their examples of toxic behaviour in the comment section: overprotected partners who end up being control freaks, covering early abuse signs with “if someone is mean to you, it means they like you”, or blaming one’s bad behaviours or lack of responsibility to their zodiac sign. This endless list shows some ridiculous as well as serious problems that society faces but not really takes into consideration, instead they are simply normalised.
Telling little girls "if hes being mean to you it means he likes you"... no.. just no
Giving men glory for doing all the normal things women do..ie: cleaning, cooking, caring for their own kids, grocery shopping, etc
I realize I am in the minority here - But I actually hate that it is assumed that my wife does all of those things and gets all the glory, when I am the one who does them all.
The virality of the video and the number of comments of this TikTok video showed that people are actually aware of these toxic behaviours. But why then people get along with these situations? Most of them occur in the family and groups of friends. So not saying to your family member or a close friend that they are being unreasonable saves you from a fight that at first seems unnecessary because these people are close to you, so why would they want bad things for you?
People bragging that they are “brutally honest”. You can be honest without being Brutal.
most of the time, they just want to be brutal. the honesty is just coincidental
Don't come at me but moms who excessively drink wine to put up with their kids. you'll never convince me it's ok .
OCD. It's not trendy it's an illness.
Later all these saved fights turn little annoying behaviours into normalised habits: spitting something upsetting and then calling yourself “brutally honest”, being abusive towards your son’s/daughter’s partner, or spreading toxic positivity when clearly this is not the way to solve an occurring problem.
Do you also find some other things that people say or do to be toxic, or maybe you know an effective way on how to stop this kind of behaviour? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Giving money to homeless on YouTube. Toxic. You don't need other people to see you doing charitable things for it to be worth doing.
Toxic positivity... let people feel
people who are upbeat and positive all the time tend to irritate me
They use their zodiac sign to justify their actions and anger issues.
Adhd- just because you were late a few times and got distracted by your friends in class doesn't mean you have it. It's not fun and quirky.
YES don't just self-diagnose because you daydream. Tell me once a professional diagnoses you bitch
Being each other's “everything”. Nah y'all both need lives, family, and friends
"Push yourself till it hurts” when it comes to work, school, physical activities. I don't get paid enough to go over my physical limits.
Treating trauma/traumatic events as a competition.
When the current gfs hate their boyfriends ex's for no other reason but the fact they dated him.
Mother in law's being abusive towards their son mates it's normal in so many cultures and it's NEVER OKAY
Men not taking care of their children because they have a new woman in their life
The whole “respect your elders” where I agree, you should show respect but there is a lot of disrespectful elderly and people in general who don't
Overprotective partners - your partner should trust your judgment enough to let you stand up for yourself or ask for their help when it's needed
Hustle culture for me. Would rather have a good paying 9-5 than 3 entrepreneural "hustles"
People romanticise "being crazy" in relationships. "Yeah she's so crazy, she deleted every girl off my Facebook, she's so crazy I love her though
Friendzoning! setting boundaries in friendships should be okay. no one owes you getting into a relationship
Going through your partners phone
this is actually rlly disrespectful and disgusting. m8, if they let you use their phone its bc they trust you. don't exploit that.
The ‘psycho' girlfriend. There's a difference between boundaries and control/abuse
The concept of forgiveness nowadays is just "oh yeah they hurt you and u prob have trauma u will deal with forever but just forgive and move on" um no
Yeah like my ex friends beat me up ( I had bruises) I got horrible anxiety that they would stab me while I was outside bc my mum asked me to go to the store, after the weekend one of them ( didn't even apologise) asked if we could be friends again and I said no bc they beat me caused me pain and anxiety and made me scared to go outside
When people talk about beating there kids or scaring there kids
I don't know if this is toxic but people think that because two people have been together for years their relationship is perfect and healthy.
Any beauty standards
Couples that take pride in being each other's only friends and spend ALL their time together. It's good to be separate from your partner sometimes
Note: this post originally had 47 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Idk if this is toxic or not but when parents (typically dads) “joke” about how if the boyfriend stays over, the shotgun will be out or something like that. Or they’ll camp outside the boyfriends room so he can’t go anywhere. It just seems so immature and shows a complete disregard for the guys feelings.
it is toxic. not only does it shame and disregard the boyfriend, it asserts that the daughter "belongs" to the dad/parents. neither of those things are okay.
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I really want to add something: they pretend to have depression because apparently its cool. It literally kills people.
mental illness seems to have become some sort of sick trend. now, i can't tell exactly where the line is, but i know you can feel depressed or anxious without having a depressive or anxiety disorder. i think for many people, the line is blurred. it's absolutely unfair to those who have an actual problem, and diminishes their struggles
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Grown men acting perverted towards young girls or women. Saying things such as, "Make sure to save her for me!" as a joke. Sir, the only thing being saved for you is a cell in prison.
Who's idealizing these? I've heard for years now that these are toxic behaviors, and we knew that long before TikTok came to be. Unfortunately there are always going to be people that oversimplify things, use mental illness terms as adjectives, put too much stock into gender roles and star signs etc. But this sort of behavior is NOT being 'idealized by society' anymore.
Pretending to have either ADHD or depression/severe anxiety are the ones I expected here. Found a lot more that I hadn't even thought about. One I didn't see was people talking about 'my multiple personalities' like, im not sure, but i feel like that'd be kinda offensive to people who actually have multiple personality disorder
And it's the wrong name. And it doesn't work like that. And if you have more than one mood doesn't mean you have more than one personality....
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started off mildly interesting and then took an armpit dive into "I wanna raise my hand and say something".
Let's not forget Hyping up people who f*cking post videos of their partner cheating on them and then destroying that person's car
Am I losing my mind or was there a very similar post somewhat recently?
Using spirituality and self- ̶ ̶b̶l̶a̶m̶e̶ healing as an excuse to stay in toxic relationships.
Idk if this is toxic or not but when parents (typically dads) “joke” about how if the boyfriend stays over, the shotgun will be out or something like that. Or they’ll camp outside the boyfriends room so he can’t go anywhere. It just seems so immature and shows a complete disregard for the guys feelings.
it is toxic. not only does it shame and disregard the boyfriend, it asserts that the daughter "belongs" to the dad/parents. neither of those things are okay.
Load More Replies... I really want to add something: they pretend to have depression because apparently its cool. It literally kills people.
mental illness seems to have become some sort of sick trend. now, i can't tell exactly where the line is, but i know you can feel depressed or anxious without having a depressive or anxiety disorder. i think for many people, the line is blurred. it's absolutely unfair to those who have an actual problem, and diminishes their struggles
Load More Replies... Grown men acting perverted towards young girls or women. Saying things such as, "Make sure to save her for me!" as a joke. Sir, the only thing being saved for you is a cell in prison.
Who's idealizing these? I've heard for years now that these are toxic behaviors, and we knew that long before TikTok came to be. Unfortunately there are always going to be people that oversimplify things, use mental illness terms as adjectives, put too much stock into gender roles and star signs etc. But this sort of behavior is NOT being 'idealized by society' anymore.
Pretending to have either ADHD or depression/severe anxiety are the ones I expected here. Found a lot more that I hadn't even thought about. One I didn't see was people talking about 'my multiple personalities' like, im not sure, but i feel like that'd be kinda offensive to people who actually have multiple personality disorder
And it's the wrong name. And it doesn't work like that. And if you have more than one mood doesn't mean you have more than one personality....
Load More Replies... started off mildly interesting and then took an armpit dive into "I wanna raise my hand and say something".
Let's not forget Hyping up people who f*cking post videos of their partner cheating on them and then destroying that person's car
Am I losing my mind or was there a very similar post somewhat recently?
Using spirituality and self- ̶ ̶b̶l̶a̶m̶e̶ healing as an excuse to stay in toxic relationships.
