People try to run away from toxicity. As this becomes more common, one has to wonder whether isolation is really going to solve the problem.
Toxicity is normally not a conscious action. People generally do not try to bring unhappiness and suffering into others’ lives. There can be people who really have bought into an ideology and hurt people. Then there are the people who are suffering from past trauma and not conscious that they are causing suffering.
Once a toxic person infiltrates your life, you become part of it too consciously or subconsciously. It is a defense mechanism for average people to counteract what they are facing. Then you realize you are causing suffering to all the people who love you and are around you. When the person is your mom, there is a high chance that the child doesn’t even know without deep self examination.
Once the toxicity is identified, the first thing you want to do is remove all toxicity from your life and avoid anything that could harm you or your loved ones. This can lead to distrust in people in general leading to isolation.
Isolation cannot solve the problem. It avoids it. But the question of why would one ever sacrifice their happiness to be with toxic people keeps replaying in the head. You might have fun with them but happiness is lost or there might be a feeling that all your energy is drained out on every encounter.
But isolation doesn’t solve the problem, it just avoids it. Now the problem is not “fixing” the other person. It is to be awake and conscious of the negative thoughts that might get conditioned into you by being in their presence. This shows how much more awareness you require. Fear shouldn’t stop you. Accept it rather than suppress it.
