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What are Energy Vampires?
The people who make you tired or drain your energy just by being around you are known as ‘energy vampires’. They suck the life off of empaths without even realizing their actions. They make your life miserable and take advantage of your empathy or kind-heartedness. An energy vampire is someone who cannot sustain their own energy or life force so they feed off others who are at a higher energetic level. They are unhappy and struggle to find the joy within so they seek it outside of themselves.
Who can be energy vampires?
Unfortunately, the people who are closest to us tend to show the signs of energy vampires- our boss, friends, spouse, family, colleagues, neighbors, social group, etc.
Major Signs of an Energy Vampire:
1. A Miserable person:
When you are around a constantly depressed and drained out person, you suddenly feel like you have acquired the same energy. They try to make you a part of the sadness they are facing.
2. Refuse to take responsibility:
If there is any work to be done, either for the class or the family, they refuse to fulfill their duties. They make excuses to escape the minimal amount of work.
3. Gossip-mongers:
They are two kinds of gossipers- the ones who gossip about you to others and the ones who gossip about others to you. Both of them are equally dangerous. They weave out false stories about random people and feed them to you as ‘news’.
4. Complaining behavior:
These people believe that everything in their life is wrong and tend to crib and cry about the littlest miseries in life.
5. Braggers:
These people always rub your nose in the fact that their life is better than yours. They brag about their wealth, job or success.
6. Passive-aggressive:
They act sweet around but suddenly try to criticize you for things that don’t matter such as your new dress, shoes or anything else you own.
7. Clingy people:
They are always with you. They don’t respect your privacy or give you any time to be with yourself at all and they expect the same from you.
The Types of Energy Vampires:
1. The Narcissist:
These are the people who constantly talk about themselves, be it in a positive or negative way. This vampire is grandiose, self-important, attention hogging, and always craves for admiration. They believe that the entire world revolves around them. Even if you try to change the topic of conversion to anything generic, she will make it about herself.
2. The Victim:
This vampire makes you think that the entire world is against her and slyly asks you to take her side and be empathetic towards. They think that life is difficult only for them.
3. The Controller:
He/ She will control every aspect of your life- your personality, the way you dress, the way you talk or present yourself, your hobbies and also things that you love.
4. The Criticiser:
He/ She will always find something wrong with you. This vampire feels qualified to judge you, belittle you, and bolster her own ego by making you feel small and ashamed.
5. The Splitter:
This vampire will treat you like your best friend one day and suddenly move away they think they have been wronged. He is often a threatening rageaholic who revels in keeping others on an emotional rollercoaster.
6. The Blamer:
They always blame others for their misery and do not take responsibility for their own actions. They put the onus on someone else, they hand out guilt, dumping all their crap onto others and dampening down their energy.
7. The Drama Queen:
They are constantly looking for attention, acting up. Everything is enhanced to an enormous scale of negative energy thus stealing the energy of others.
8. The Charmer:
She uses her charm, her jokes, her little annoying habits to everybody else’s energy directed at her. She will praise you abundantly but run away when you actually need her.
9. The Green-Eyed Monster:
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Theses people are always jealous. They want what others have, not happy with they have got and they always crave for what others have.
10. The Guilt Tripper:
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They use shame to get what they want from other people.
11. The Insecure:
They don’t feel confident and tend to pull others down to their level of low self-esteem.
12. The Paranoid Android:
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These vampires are highly anxious and fearful. This chaotic energy causes imbalances in those around them.
Energy Vampire Symptoms:
The following health/ physiological/ psychological conditions can make you realize that you are around an energy vampire:
- Headache
- Cellular Inflammation
- Deregulation of the immune system
- Joint pain and swelling
- Digestive distress
- Weight gain
- Arthritis
- Chronic fatigue
- PTSD- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Constant Social Stress
Energy Vampires in Relationships:
When you are in a relationship, there is always one person who takes dominant power and other succumbs to feelings and plays along with his/ her partner. It is fairly simple to make out who the energy vampire is. If you feel tired of talking or being with your partner, he might be an energy vampire. Here are some common ways to find out:
The physical gratification is not returned.
He asks you for way too many small favors and doesn’t listen when you speak.
He tries to change the way you behave according to his convenience.
If you find yourself familiar with the above situations, feel free to break the relationship rather than having a negative energy around you all the time.
Energy Vampires at Work:
These people will always try to belittle you, make you feel inadequate, sabotage your friendship for something superficial or spread rumors about you. You cannot play nice. You have to cut these people out of your life. Always remember: This should not affect the quality of your work.
8 Ways to Deal with Energy Vampires:
- Awareness of your surrounding is very vital. Realize that they exist and look out for the signs mentioned above. Then, take the necessary action.
- Take a deep breath, center yourself and be strong. Don’t play with your self-dignity. Do not allow them to bring you down to the level of energy vampires.
- Learn how to say no and set the necessary boundaries. You have the choice to walk away and not deal with them.
- Do not react or take sides, stay neutral. They will get bored and go feed energy off someone else.
- Cut all cords of attachment. If you think someone is draining you, imagine there’s a cord attaching them to you and cut through it with an imaginary axe – one swift chop – done. Immediate detachment.
- Also, consider‘what do you I to learn from this situation?’For example, if you’re attracting jealous and competitive people, chances are those people are attracted to you because you are acting the same. If you work through your own issues, this won’t be an issue anymore.
- You can visit a psychotherapist who specializes in narcissistic abuse recovery. This can be very helpful, especially for couples.
The best thing to do: surround yourself with happy, positive people and be happy and positive yourself. Focus more on the people who love you and actually believe in your dreams.
Bottom Line:
A famous quote by William Shakespeare: “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” Love everyone around but just be aware of the fact that there are energy vampires all around you. They are eager for an opportunity to suck the life out of you. Do not trust them but also do not hurt them but keep your distance and try not to imitate their lifestyle.
