How to spot the difference between a good friend and a bad friend?

Everybody in this world has a friend – you, me, everybody! The best emotional connection man finds after his parents, a spouse and a beloved pet is from a dear friend. However, the world is changing fast and with the changing times' relationships have started to become toxic.

There are many people who you might consider as a close friend, but in fact the person is probably friends with you just for money or time pass. It is essential for you to realize what good friends are so that you can weed out the toxic people out of your life who you accidentally mistook as a ‘dear friend’

According to Lord Buddha, there are basically 4 types of good friends you need to keep

• The Lookout Guy: Helps you in every way, whenever he/she can and he/she is able to.
• The Timeless Companion: Keeps your secret safe and never abandons you in times of misfortune.
• The Guide: Stops you from doing bad things and always guides you to perform good actions. He/ she is not afraid to tell you things you need to hear that are for your own benefit.
• The Protector: Never lets other people speak badly about you and encourages others to realize your good qualities.

If you are still confused about how to understand which friend of yours is good-hearted and which is a toxic one for you, we have curated a list of essential traits both kinds of friends exhibit.

Here are the traits of a good friend

• The very foundation of a good friendship is mutual respect. Good friends will always keep in touch, no matter what.
• Good friends are always happy with whatever achievement you make – big or small. They always make it a point to celebrate your successes.
• Good friends will always keep advising you on how to live your life with positivity. They leave no stone unturned to find out and suggest things that can make you happy.
• Good friends can just not tolerate anyone putting you down. They’ll get into fights trying to protect you if they know that you are not in the wrong.
• Good friends will always lend you an ear no matter how topsy-turvy their life currently is. Good friends, even when broke help their friends in any kind of financial crisis.
• Good friends will coddle you towards happiness even if you are going through a hell of a time. They won’t let you go until and unless your life is back to normal.

Here are the traits of an extremely toxic friend

• Toxic friends contact you only when they need something done from you or if they are bored.
• Toxic friends always get jealous of your achievements as if your success is detrimental to their happiness. This jealousy usually stems from their own anxiety issues that they might pin on you in a fight or a disagreement.
• Bad friends generally give bad advice in the garb of trying to ‘help you’. If you mess up, they will accuse you of not listening to them properly and that they ‘never suggested’ any such thing.
• Bad friends will back-bite a lot if they know your secrets too well. This is not a good habit as this can damage your reputation especially when the person who isn’t supposed to find out your secret finds it anyway through the likes of such friends.
• Bad friends will take your insecurities very lightly and instead of listening to your problems will try to divert any conversation about them and their problems in life. Bad friends will always ask for lent money back even when they know you can’t repay the amount currently. They will never give you enough time to pay a loan back.
• Bad friends generally vanish from the scene when you are going through a rough patch in life.

We hope you liked this article. In today’s world, it is very necessary to choose your friends wisely otherwise someone might just play with your feelings and make you regret the day you considered that person a ‘good friend’.

Never spill out secrets about your life – insecurities, aspirations, work-life problems, etc. until you are sure that this trust will be met with secrecy and care.

True friends are very rare to find these days. You will know a toxic person when you evaluate the value of their friendship based on the points we have discussed above.