9 Tell-tale Signs Your Friend Is As Poison As Cyanide

I guess most people, if not all, would like to have as many friends as possible. It’s social proof to feed our vanity and it also gives us various options of hanging out when the chips are down.

However, no matter how vast your sea of friends are, you want to avoid those that are as poisonous to you as cyanide. It’s not a problem if some of the friends in your social circle don’t like you. But if their lack of affection towards you ignites action that are detrimental to your own well-being, it’s time to cut them loose from your life.

If you really have your luck against you, failing to remove a frenemy from your life can have dramatic consequences one day.

Unlike a known enemy, a “friend” is able to get close to you with your guards down. So their actions can be more devastating even if their sabotage has less ferocity than an all-out enemy.

So how can you tell the wolf from the sheep’s skin? What signs can you look for and weed them out?

1) They sabotage your progress with someone you’d like to date

If there’s something that really riles up people who hates you, it is the sight of your happiness with an attractive boyfriend or girlfriend.

They’d probably don’t mind if your love interest is ugly. But someone who is hot or more attractive than their own partner? No way.

This is why they do subtle things that prevents you from advancing a relationship forward. Things like:

• Not leaving you alone with the girl you chatted up at the bar
• Making a move on her when you are not around
• Belittle you in front of the person you’d like to date, and on social media
• Distracting you with other stuff so that you cannot spend time with the person you want
• Creating a negative perception of you in his/her mind

I can go on with this list, but I think you get the idea.

There’s nothing more frustrating than to have your chance on a romantic love interest shot down by someone who is pretending that he/she is not doing it on purpose.

Just a simple example. If you are just joking around with a girl that you are a pilot, this “friend” with evil intentions will call you out on your bluff just so to disrupt the flirting that is going on. Or when you compliment her, your friend will cut in and say that you give the same compliments to every girl you meet.

So stealthy can these frenemies be with their espionage that you can’t say for certain whether they meant what they did or not.

This is why you need more clues… and more tell-tale signs… to validate your suspicions.

2) They never return the favor of introducing quality dates

Unless you live in a society with a different set of rules, you’d probably agree that most people (including you) tend to be monogamous and will only have a boyfriend/girlfriend or spouse one at a time.

This means that if you are already happily attached and then met someone great, if you really love your friends, you would probably introduce the great catch to them…

… unless you are so selfish that you prefer to keep that catch in the pipeline for yourself… even if you have no chance in hell…

This actually happens very often in social dynamics. And toxic friends will simply refuse to introduce you to attractive men/women they know, because they cannot live with themselves if they see you hook up with a person they have an infatuation with.

This behavior also somewhat depends on the culture of your social group. If you group absolutely do not practice the act of introducing potential partners to others, then this behavior (or the lack of it) can be acceptable.

But if you have always had the good intentions of trying to hook up your friends with quality men and women, finding out that someone is keeping all his apples for himself is a clear sign that he does not really wish you the best in life.

And if you call him out on it, look out for the lame excuses like:

• She is not your type
• She already has someone in her heart
• You won’t be able to win her over
• She like men who are more outgoing
• I thought you have your heart on that other girl

Lame selfish bastards.

3) No problems with backing out in the last minute

If a friend backs out from a meetup at the last minute, it says a lot about how this “friend” values your relationship with him/her. It might have a lesser implication if it’s a group outing. But if the meetup is just the 2 of you, you would have to be a monk to not recognize the significance of an event like this.

Among many things, a despicable act like this says that:

• Your time is not as important as his time
• Your time is expendable while his is not
• You getting screwed does not concern him even when he is the perpetrator
• You are so insignificant that he don’t care what you think about him
• He is fitting you into his schedule and you have to wait for your turn

I’d say the same about such a “friend” if he is very late for a meetup instead of backing out. It’s the same total disrespect.

4) Borrow money and take ages to return it even when he has the cash

I’ll not talk about borrowing money and not returning it. That is an obvious alarm going off.

And at least that is someone you can instantly write-off as a friend and not feel guilty about it.

What’s more frustrating is in knowing a friend has the money to return you but refuses to do so immediately. Instead choosing to drag the payback for as long as possible… sometimes even make you beg to get your money back… and call you names for demanding it back…

This is the kind of world we live in.

If there one thing that can destroy relationships, it’s money.

Families are known to break down from financial matters. People fight everyday where money is the root cause of the problem. And in extreme cases, horrible crimes are committed with money as the underlying motive.

If someone is willing to let owing you money (even when he can afford to pay you back) potentially destroy the relationship with you, it tells you all you need to know about where he stands on being friends with you.

5) Belittle you in front of others

Imagine a fun group conversation with the guys and girls at a cafe. And every time you contribute to the conversation, there is someone to debunk and belittle your thoughts.

This prick might even turn every one of your innocent jokes around and focus the jokes on you. Sometimes so outrageous it can be, that you can even feel the knives on your back.

It doesn’t matter if person has little influence. Chipping at your reputation will eat you away slowly.

The only reason why a someone would do this is when he has not even an ounce of respect for you. And he could very well despise you too.

This person would probably be the biggest suspect if you one day find that embarrassing rumors about you are being spread within your social group and on social media. Or when you have been given an unflattering nick name inside your social group.

These types of people don’t deserve your friendship. Remove them from your life before a real monster starts to rear it’s ugly head.

6) Keeps reminding you of the “favors” you owe

Friends do favors for each other all the time. And if you are on really friendly terms, you wouldn’t ask for anything back.

I remember when I was a kid. There was this jerk that always kept tabs on how many ridiculous favors I “owe” him. And being the dumb kid I was (hey we were all young once) I actually played along with it. Good thing we never kept in touch. Good riddance.

Yet I won’t write-off the possibility that there will be bullies in your social circle who exhibits these types of behavior.

There’s something wrong with people like these. They exploit any advantage they have over you and guilt you into doing favors for them as if you owe them.

Imagine how scandalous their requests can get if you allow this behavior to go on.

Emotional blackmail have no place in friendship. Cut off that parasite from your life.

7) They don’t congratulate you for your success

There was a time when I was truly happy for a friend of mine when he was finally commissioned as a military officer. I actually ran into the parade square to give him a buddy hug leaving everyone behind smelling the dust I have kicked up.

And I was flabbergasted when one of those “friends” finally arrived at the scene and told my buddy how he could have done better… and he should have gone for the top cadet award.

Imagine if you won Gold at the Olympics, and this clown walks right up to you and said to your face that you are not a real champion until you win it again in 4 years…

There will always be people who won’t hesitate to rain on your parade.

At the same time, you have to learn how to identify when these are just casual jokes or whether they really meant to put someone down.

I have little doubt that friends who care about you will wish you success and be happy for your achievements. Those who have nothing good to say and only have room to downplay your success… don’t really want you to succeed.

They probably feel inferior when your achievements exceed them.

8) They steal your friends and even try to outcast you

If you are like me, who loves to socialize in groups, you would often try to bring new friends into your social circle, and even join 2 groups together.

I just find groups more suited for fun. The more the merrier.

But once in a while you might run into people who have predatory instincts so strong that they start building inner groups within groups and even attempt to kick you out of it all.

I’ve faced such instances before. And my social group was disgusted with what this lone wolf was doing that we all stopped calling him altogether.

You can’t let your guard down against people like these. You really don’t know what kinds of scheme he would be planning for next. And it’s just too tiring to constantly be on your guard.

If being the targeted victim of a social coup is your reward for bringing someone into a group, then you should take decisive action before people start to take sides.

Leaving this unattended to can not only be detrimental to you, it can also cause friction within the group and sow disharmony.

9) They sell you MLM!

I don’t think there is enough space on this webpage to write down all my thoughts on MLM.

So let’s just summarize it in a sentence… make that two.

“You will never make any money from MLM. And you will lose everything that you have already put into it.”

Alright. That’s a little therapeutic just to say it.

I have never got involved in MLM. And I have a bad impression of it because every person I know personally who have gotten into it don’t make money. And every relationship I’ve had with them are never the same again after they made their pitch to sell.

Some even tricked me into attending their high-pressure sales talks. It told me how much they treasured friendship when they are willing to sacrifice it.

I probably won’t loathe MLM as much if members are directed to distribute products to general consumers instead of specifically targeting friends and family. But we all know what the drastic truth is.

If a friend wants to make money, and he sees the road to financial freedom comes from the wallet of friends, this is an individual that you should stay away from.

Being willing to put friendship on the line for potential financial rewards is an insult to relationships.

Their simple-mindedness for believing in this money-churning system could also put you in danger one day if you keep them close to you. Run while you still can.