Negative People’s Characteristics

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2t6zTCKTi1COaTx7dpKDOu?si=b4df70b77b3a4678

We’re all surrounded by negative people’s characteristics. Some of them are our friends, family members or coworkers. At what point do you draw the line and stop interacting with them? Many times, we love these people and find them funny, entertaining, attractive and fun to be around, but their negative temperament often causes you to feel sad. It’s very important to keep this in mind because who you surround yourself with influences your thoughts, behavior and expressions. Being around negative people for too long will slowly turn you into a negative person as well.

Negative People’s Characteristics: Bitter, Pessimistic and Rigid

To feel bitter is to feel angry, hurt, or resentful because of one’s bad experiences or a sense of unjust treatment. When someone has had many bad experiences in their past and has not properly dealt with them, they become bitter. This is a defense mechanism that attempts to prevent them from experiencing more bad experiences in the future. Rather than learning from their bad experiences and moving on, they can’t properly process them and remain angry instead. So when you run into them, you can’t help but to experience their bitterness.

To be pessimistic is to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen. Again, this stems from many bad experiences in their past to the point that they have lost hope for the future. This is another defense mechanism that attempts to protect them by expecting the worst. If you expect the worst, your mind is not surprised if a bad outcome does result. It almost becomes an automatic process to be pessimistic unless you point it out to someone and help them to change.

To be rigid is to be inflexible in your communication, interactions and behavior. People can also be inflexible in their thought process and how they approach situations. While rigidity may be a personality trait from birth, I believe it has a lot to do with your upbringing. Your relationship with your parents and/or siblings along with early school experiences play a role in your rigidity. Some children experience a lot of bullying and end up developing rigidity as a protective defense mechanism; they’re protecting themselves from more future negative interactions.