We all know how wonderful a supportive friend can be during your dealings with infertility. They are priceless and they can come in many forms, whether a spouse, a sibling or other relative or, a friend. But, there are also relationships that look like friendship, but aren’t supportive or healing. These relationships are defined as toxic and can be especially harmful to women who are so vulnerable already by infertility.
According to this article Difficult Friends: Toxic Friendships – People You Must Avoid by Emmy over on blogspot, toxic relationships are described as this:
Entering into a friendship opens the door for hurt and harm; a harmful friend or a toxic friendship can be one of life’s hardest relationship tribulations to forgive and forget. Toxic friends often come back to haunt you for a long time.
There are nine main types of toxic friends–those people whose friendship hurts you eventually. Knowing the categories of toxic friends helps you avoid them. Unfortunately, though, becoming friends is risky and there is never a guarantee you will not be hurt by a toxic friend.
Before researching this article, I didn’t realize that there were actual classifications of toxic friends. I love the above quote of “Toxic friends often come back to haunt you for a long time.” This has been my experience with the one relationship that stands out in my head. I am utterly thankful that her and I were experiencing an “off” time during my infertility. I don’t know how I would have survived the added pressure.
Below are links to building a positive support network by Coley over at www.adoptionblogs.com. I read these posts last year and was impressed about all of the thought and consideration that went into her descriptions of her relied upon friends.
Building Your Support Network pt. 1
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