6 Signs You're Dealing with Energy Vampires

Are you an empath or a highly sensitive person who is easily affected by the emotions or energy of others? If so, then you might want to be careful around emotional energy vampires. An energy vampire is a person who feeds off your emotions, or psychic, energy. People who display energy vampire traits generally lack empathy, sensitivity, and emotional maturity. As a result of the pain or insecurity they feel inside, energy vampires are addicted to preying on the vitality of others as an attempt to heal their inner suffering. Are you in a situation, where you might be the energy vampire, or someone close to you? Are you wondering if you're an energy vampire as well? If so, then this video will show you the signs that you are dealing with energy vampires. Energy vampires' behavior can be very similar to narcissistic abuse.

Writer: Chloe Avanasa
Script Editor: Kelly Soong
VO: Amanda Silvera
Animator: Mocha
YouTube Manager: Cindy Cheong

References:

de Vries, M. F. K. (2014). Are you a victim of the victim syndrome?. In Mindful Leadership Coaching (pp. 68-86). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Lobel, T. E., & Teiber, A. (1994). Effects of self-esteem and need for approval on affective and cognitive reactions: Defensive and true self-esteem. Personality and Individual Differences, 16(2), 315-321.
Pistole, M. C. (1995). Adult attachment style and narcissistic vulnerability. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 12(1), 115.
Nagy, S., & Davis, L. G. (1985). Burnout: A comparative analysis of personality and environmental variables. Psychological Reports, 57(3_suppl), 1319-1326.
Grosz, M. P., Dufner, M., Back, M. D., & Denissen, J. J. (2015). Who is open to a narcissistic romantic partner? The roles of sensation seeking, trait anxiety, and similarity. Journal of Research in Personality, 58, 84-95.

[Psychgo]

What’s anime are you watching? Comment below.

[mechasentai]

One thing to be extremely careful is that people like this can provoke a generally calm and peaceful person into anger. And of course then YOU become the villain.

[AznGurl]

For y’all who want the tl;dr here’s the 6 Signs that You’re Dealing With An Energy Vampire

1) They like to play the victim
2) They are narcissistic
3) They want to dominate you
4) They create unnecessary drama
5) They constantly criticize you
6) They exploit your kindness

As for my own $0.02, you are never obligated to put up with this kind of behavior with ANYONE but also be aware if/when you do any of these too!! Surround yourself with people who seek to help you grow and that you feel encouraged to help them rise as well. Life is too short to bring others down just to get to the top, so spread the love and positivity!

[nessieXtheXlochness]

I found that people that are energy vampires sometimes shower you with complements and gifts to make you feel like you are friends and hold power over you. This is just an effort to keep you around longer and to be more willing to do what they ask.

[marvinthiessen]

Your last sentence, "Energy vampires behavior can be very similar to narcissistic abuse" is an understatement, it's part of the narcissist's handbook. They try their best to drain all the positive energy from a few friends or adult children. They thrive on playing the victim. They create mountains out of molehills, display a chronic negative attitude, are domineering and clueless about how toxic they really are. People eventually flee them to keep their sanity.

[uscg]

I found this quote in my school on a painting:

You are most yourself when your wrapped up in your PURPOSE not in your POSITION.
Edit: wow the likes dude..the likes..

[-seesaw-kpop]

For some reason people like this make you doubt everything about yourself.

[everydaygorillazva]

I realized i was like this and became self aware, so i messaged my friends to apoligze and its going well so far

[jasevelyn]

Sounds exactly like someone I know, I literally had to stop being around them so I could gain my mental strength back

[hampeace]

AYYY I’M THE ARTIST FOR THIS ONE!!

So happy to work on this video ❤️

[ossen]

If your life isn't enriched in their presences and you feel drained every time you get together - *like a 12 round boxing match*
Time to cut them loose.

[babyblue]

My ex boyfriend. I was with him off and on for 23 years. He has gotten me to where I literally feel like I lost my mind. I constantly doubted my self worth and basically used ALL of my energy trying to make HIM happy. I recently just started to believe that I deserve much better than this.

[koul]

Wow, this was so accurate. It's disturbing how well they can be disguised as a harmless victim figure in your life. The second I put the clues together, I kicked this "friend" out of my life pronto. As a highly empathetic person, you unfortunately have to be on high-alert for these kinds of people :/ It's really unfortunate and makes us want to be less giving to the next person.

[alextint]

Emotional Vampires can be so obnoxious and dangerous for the mental health too deeply, that their behavior can make you to feel depressed and exhausted

[murderkitten]

I always called myself an energy vampire because my mood tends to mimic the energy level of people around me. I had no idea it was something else, especially this bad. Soooo gonna stop using that term now.

[DanielSquires]

It all starts with you. Control what you can, learn to set boundaries.

[yqsne]

I'm trying to distance myself from this friend that genuinely drains my energy everyday with her problems, she's extremely needy, very emotional, and she's always the victim of a bunch of stuff happening to her, she's a loud mouth, she talks a lot about a lot of things that i don't care about at all. she benefits from my kindness by constantly reassuring her, giving her advice and I really feel like I always have to say the right thing so she feels okay. I'm so done with this shit, instantly cutting her off dont seem like the right thing, but I'm gonna distance myself from her gradually, i feel like it's only right..

[famingo]

"(the artist is a jojo fan)"

noice

[curtistinemiller]

It"s sad when these people are family...

[beth-annbascom]

Two of my closest friends were enemy vampires. After being friends with them for 15 years, I finally walked away from my friendship with them when I realized their negative vampirish behaviors were pulling me down too much emotionally, and putting my mental health in jeopardy. I thought ending the friendship would be difficult. I thought I would miss them. What I experienced was a sense of emotional freedom, and like I had my life back. I have never been sorry I walked away from the emotional vampires in my life. I'm glad I put myself first and loved myself enough to realize enough was enough.