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This is all great advice until you get stuck with "I don't give a fuck" "it's my way or the highway" people. There are more of them that may seem at a first glance, and it takes some time to figure that out, too. And sometimes it comes with age, so that's even worse, because there is no way to tell early on.

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Ive found that the “my way or highway” attitrude is often a defense mechanism and they will meet you halfway if you simply ackowledge their point of view. Accepting and acknowledging are not the same thing though so I dont mean to cave in if you disagree.

I speak as a toxic person myself. Years of systemaric abuse and I was pretty much a marcissistic asshole.

100% a defense mechanism to avoid abuse. I had never learned what validation was. Also I isually assumed everyone was out to get me.

Took me years of living without a relationship to learn to learn what an absolute dunderhead I could be.

Sometimes other peoples actions are simply a reflection of your own attitide.

I look at it this way, if everyone around me is an ahole, the only thing they have in common is me. Maybe, just maybe, I myself may need to learn to communicate and validate those around me. And I need to do that without selling myself short.

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