Setting and maintaining healthy boundaries with difficult people can be challenging. There are people in our lives who have personality types that clash with our own or perhaps their behaviors, attitudes or belief systems make them difficult to be around. These areas of conflict can be draining and it’s difficult to know how to manage them!
Maintaining healthy boundaries is easy (with practice) when we are with people who respect our boundaries. The challenge is to continue using these skills with people who are “difficult” or with whom we frequently feel put down, silenced or exhausted. Julie Hanks, LCSW does a great job in this clip discussing different types of difficult people/behaviors and listing specific ways to manage challenging situations, and set clear boundaries in a respectful way. One important point she makes is that “difficult” people are not usually trying to be mean or disrespectful; they are often wounded. This perspective helps us come from a place of compassion when we set limits and boundaries to take care of our own mental health and well-being.
Tag Archives: boundaries
Stop Being A Doormat! Learning to Set Healthy Boundaries.
It is possible to have healthy boundaries – which is essential in taking care of ourselves – and still care about others. Setting healthy boundaries demonstrates that our emotional well-being is a priority. Living with or loving somebody that struggles with addiction can make it difficult to hold healthy boundaries. We often see boundaries relax due to fear and a desire to provide support. We hear families say, “We will do anything it takes to help our loved one recover.” But, without knowing it they support the addiction by shrinking their boundaries in response to the addicted person’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
This week we are providing a short clip featuring Julie Hanks, LCSW. In this clip she discusses some common issues that can make it difficult for friends and family members to set healthy boundaries. While this discussion isn’t geared specifically towards addiction – the information shared in the clip is applicable to all family systems.