A toxic parent leaves permanent scars on a child. This scar can affect worldview, personality, behavior, decision-making, and perception.
It can also cause permanent damage to mental health issues such as substance abuse, PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
These adverse effects can affect the child for the rest of his or her life, affecting relationships, friendships, and even the way he or she interacts with others as an adult. If allowed to continue, it can last a lifetime.
However, these problems can be overcome. They don’t have to haunt the child for the rest of their lives or cause them to lose the ability to pursue happiness. Recovery is not easy, but it is worth it, and anyone can do it!
How to Deal With a Toxic Parent?
Children living in a toxic home do not have many options. The toxic mother or father tries to rob the child of his or her confidence and make him or her think that he or she is incapable of making the right decisions.
This is a lie that must be overcome. As an adult, you are fully capable of making appropriate decisions about yourself and your life.
1) Set Limits and Enforce Them
Boundaries are an essential part of friendships and relationships. They are even more critical when dealing with toxic parents.
Boundaries are about deciding what behaviors you are willing to accept from others. This is usually not a luxury that children have with their parents, so setting boundaries with parents to let them know how you want to be treated may seem very offensive or wrong.
People without boundaries are attractive targets for the toxicologist. This is because the toxicologist’s goal is to feed off all the negativity they have. To do so, they have no choice but to harness the time, attention, and emotional energy of others, but those with limitations can eliminate them.
It is difficult to impose limits on toxic people. They are not entitled to your time or emotional energy. However, it is good to set limits.
You must be able to say “no” to your parents if you want to. Also, if your parents do not accept and respect your limitations, you may have to stop dealing with them.
2) Do Not Try to Please Them or Get Them to Like You
Manipulative and emotionally abusive people like to manipulate their victims into submissive positions. They often try to make the other person feel that they must earn their favor or pleasure by submitting to their desires and whims.
But no matter what is done or how hard they try, it is never enough. They will never be satisfied with what you give them. For if they were satisfied, you would stop trying.
3) Do Not Try to Reason With Someone Who Is Not Reasonable
Toxic people often live by their own stories. They have false beliefs about what life is, how it should be, and how it should be treated.
Because of this false belief, they are often the center of attention, and others must wait to accommodate their demands.
From the outside, it may appear that they have simply been given the wrong knowledge or are unaware that their wishes are not reasonable, but usually, this is not the case. So, don’t bother trying to explain or reason with unreasonable people. You will only end up wasting energy and possibly giving them more weapons.
4) Limit the Information You Share
Toxic parents are always looking for information they can leverage. Knowing which levers to pull and which buttons to push can manipulate and coerce you.
Avoid people who gossip, unfairly criticize you, or share things that you should not share. Trust your instincts if you think you should not share something with them.
It is a difficult journey to face alone. It may be a good idea to seek the help of a certified mental health counselor while going through these phases.
