6 ways to cope when you live with someone toxic

Summary

The article provides six coping mechanisms for dealing with toxic people you live with.

Abstract

The article discusses the challenges of living with someone toxic and provides six coping mechanisms to help maintain sanity. The author suggests being at home as little as possible, learning the toxic person's schedule, preparing meals in advance, avoiding engagement, making conversations revolve around the toxic person, and finding one's voice to speak up when necessary. The author hopes that these tips will help those who are in a difficult living situation.

Opinions

The author believes that being at home as little as possible can reduce run-ins with toxic people.
The author suggests learning the toxic person's schedule to work around it and avoid them.
The author recommends preparing meals in advance to avoid interaction with the toxic person.
The author advises being a "boring" person to have a conversation with to avoid engagement.
The author suggests making every conversation revolve around the toxic person to avoid divulging personal information.
The author encourages finding one's voice to speak up when necessary.
The author hopes that these tips will help those who are in a difficult living situation.

#4 Be as boring as possible

Some of us may have had the experience of living with someone that we don’t like at all times. You know, the ones where you get along mostly, but every so often they say or do something that gets under your skin? Maybe it’s a parent, or a sibling, or a roommate. But what about living with someone who you can’t wait to get away from? Someone who makes your home feel like a battleground every day? In those situations, what do you do?

I’ve been in that situation a few times. If moving out soon is not possible, here are some coping mechanisms I’ve found that have helped me keep my sanity.

Be at home/out of your room as little as possible. I’ve reduced a lot of run ins simply by not being home often enough or long enough to warrant one.

Learn their schedule so that you can work around it. If you know they’ll be gone, you can do laundry, clean, and even meal prep without having to see them. Which leads to my next tip.

Prepare a few different meals on days they’re usually gone, so you can just microwave food and run back into your room if they’re home. While the food is heating up, you can call a friend or stare at your phone, or even just go back to your room.

Don’t engage. Sometimes you’ll have to make small talk with someone you live with and it won’t be an enjoyable conversation. I’ve found a lot of success in being a ‘boring’ person to have a conversation with when I don’t like someone. I give one-word answers and say “mmm” in place of actual reactions. That way there’s no room for debate, because I’m not saying anything.

If you’re forced into a situation where you have no choice but to talk to them for an extended period of time, make every conversation revolve around them. That way, you don’t have to divulge how you’re doing or feeling, and they can’t offer their opinion on it. Plus, some people really love to talk about themselves.

Find your voice. Sometimes you’ll live with soul crushing people who want to bring you down and will stop at nothing to hurt your feelings. It can seem easier to shy away from confrontation if something really bothers you. But, toxic people will never stop taking. So, when you’re ready, speak your mind. It’s not fair for you to have to hold the burden alone, and sometimes people need to be told that they’re unkind.

I hope you never have to use these tips. But if you do, I hope they help. You deserve to have as much inner peace as possible, no matter what.