Emotional Vampire

Emotional vampires are the sort of people who suck the life and mood out of you. Five minutes with them and you can stop smiling, lose your motivation and energy and they can end up spoiling your day.

Sometimes you don’t even notice these people dragging you down.

So who are they?

  • The person who talks about themselves all the time.
  • The person who is the half empty glass –just negative about everything.
  • The person who always has a drama going on. Attention seeking all the time.

What can you do to deal with these emotional vampires? Here are some tips.

  1. Ask them solutions focussed questions – Like “What do you think you can do to sort this out?”
  2. Acknowledge they are troubled and need compassion.
  3. Interrupt the person and explain you only have a couple of minutes to talk.
  4. Accept that some people are struggling and some are not aware of their impact on others.
  5. Say to the person that you want to help but want to help them to be positive.
  6. Give them a hug and say that you hope they feel better soon. Sometimes a hug is powerful.
  7. Ask them what they want to happen and how can you help them.
  8. Be honest and tell the person how they are making you feel – be prepared for them to fall out with you though.
  9. Be Aware of the person’s impact on you and talk to someone if they are getting you down.
  10. Recommend a coach for them to talk to.

Boost it, Change it1