5 Signs Your Friend is an Energy Vampire

An energy vampire is someone who drains your energy with their mere presence. If you know someone drains you, just the thought of him coming around or texting you is enough to suck the energy out of you. The following are five signs of an energy vampire.

1. An energy vampire is self-centered

An energy vampire will have all the time and energy to talk about themselves, but if you attempt to interject with a story about yourself, he will have to leave or somehow manage to direct the conversation to himself. An energy vampire can be quite clever. If he notices that you're no longer replying to texts and indulging him in conversation about himself, he will re-open conversation by asking about you, but once you reply, he is quick to change the subject back to himself. This type of behavior is energy draining. You will feel exhausted and even angry or negative after communicating with an energy vampire.

2. An energy vampire is a know-it-all

You've probably had at least one friend who thinks he has all the right answers and isn't afraid to let you know. For any response you give, he will come back with a list of reasons why you're wrong and provide proof to back himself up. This type of person is difficult to have a conversation with because he isn't into sharing and exploring ideas. He wants to be right all the time. You probably feel drained after communicating with someone like this. If you have a know-it-all in your circle of friends, it's probably a good idea to distance yourself and focus on people you can have a back-and-forth discussion with.

3. An energy vampire is a victim

Someone who is a perpetual victim in life is an energy vampire. This person will complain constantly that people do him wrong and nothing in his life ever goes right. If things don't go exactly right for him, he will rant and rave about how nothing ever works out for him. He will blame others and refuse to see anything positive. You might have a list of good things about his life that you remind him of, but he would rather focus on the things that are going wrong. He won't feel better when others can relate to his unfortunate situations. His will always be the worst and no one can possibly understand how he feels. Dealing with someone who is a victim is a no-win situation for you and will leave you feeling as bad as he does.

4. An energy vampire is overly critical of others

A person who doesn't feel good about themselves may criticize and judge others harshly. This is an attempt to make himself feel better and bring others down. When you tell this type of person good news, he will find a negative point or two to point out instead of being happy for you. Even though you will want to share your news with him, you will also dread it because you know he won't be able to leave his opinions out of it. You best choice is to either stop attempting to share good news with this person or cut him out of your life.

5. An energy vampire is needy for attention

If a person requires too much of your time throughout the day and doesn't seem to understand that you have other things to do, you may be dealing with an energy vampire. This is someone who may call you and keep you on the phone for hours at a time. He may get irritated if you don't reply to text quickly enough for him. He assumes that he's the only person in your life or wants to be the most important. He may accuse you of not caring about him or what he's going through. This is manipulation to make you feel bad and continue giving him attention. When dealing with someone like this, it's important that you step back and give him less attention instead of more. The truth is that he will never be happy no matter how much attention he gets.

Dealing with an energy vampire can put you in an uncomfortable situation because you probably like the person who is draining you. You have to think of your own well-being first though, so if someone is sucking the life out of you and leaving you feeling negative for hours or days after interacting with them, it's time to take control of the situation.