Sometimes it's hard to know who has your back, & who has it just long enough to stab you in it!

I've noticed more than usual lately that a bunch of people in my life are backstabbers and phonies. Strangely enough a few of these people I considered like family, thought I knew them well, but apparently I was mistaken. My bad for believing in you. For the most part I can usually spot this kind of person from a mile away and won't let them into my life in any kind of intimate fashion. I won't hang out or socialize with them outside of the reason why I know them in the first place (perhaps they're a co-worker, or sibling of a friend etc.), but every now and then you find yourself in a situation that you didn't realize you had gotten yourself into. Maybe it's a relative or someone whom you've considered a close friend for ages, that turns into the child of Lucifer one day right before your eyes. Sometimes you knew all along that they were a phony, but for various reasons you had to keep your mouth shut and smile at them, all the while thinking to yourself, if I had my way, I would drop kick your fake ass all the way to the North Pole.

Sometimes these people show their aggression towards you in ways that I would call passive aggressive ie: Not inviting you to a party, having every excuse in the book for not showing up/calling/being there for you when you finally needed them, giving you a gift that is blatantly not meant for you, making promises to you that were never meant to be kept, making comments in front of you that are designed to hurt you and uplift someone else, etc. We've all been there, all been a targeted victim of these petty crimes.

So, what do you do when you realize someone that has been in your life for a long time suddenly turns on you? Or maybe it's not so sudden but you've finally reached the point where you have to either address the issue or loose your cool or... send them out of your life. Do you ask yourself what you did to provoke that behavior or do you ask yourself what the hell did I do to deserve this crap? Do you blame them or yourself? Do you wonder if they think you're stupid enough to believe they're genuine? Do you remove them from your life? Is it simply your existence that makes them want to hurt you? Are they jealous of you for one reason or another? Are they just so unhappy with their own wretched little lives that they have to target someone who they think can't or won't fight back?

As for me, I tend to let people go. Not because I'm cold, callous, heartless or uncaring, but because if I've reached the point where I have to make this decision I've already allowed myself to be your doormat for far too long and now it's time for me to pull up my self respect and give you your walking papers. That's never an easy choice to make and naturally it causes a great deal of pain but there comes a time where you have to decide what is more important, this person or your own mental health and self respect.

So tell me, how do you handle these situations? I want to hear from you.

This is:
What Now?... With Paula