8 tips for dealing with overly critical people

Overly critical people are those who fail to see anything positive in people and things. They criticize all attitudes with fury and are even more rigid when it comes to the opinion they have of themselves.

This is certainly very bad for the person who is like that, but the worst thing is that it also affects those who live with that person, who ends up absorbing the negativism and suffering a wave of discouragement, low self-esteem and from there on down – even a possible depression.

Due to this bad influence they can have on other people’s emotions, someone who is too critical can also be called by some an energy vampire – because this person ends up “sucking” all that is happy in the other.

Imagine that person who is already insecure listening to someone make a strong criticism about him? This further discourages those who are not already very excited.

To help lessen the effects of these people on others, we’ve selected eight suggestions on how to deal with people who are overly critical so you can learn to live with them without being so affected by their comments.

1 – Don’t take it personally

People who are overly critical are usually like that with everyone else they relate to. So there’s no reason to take these criticisms personally. If this person always seems to be discouraging you and sternly criticizing everything you say, rest assured that he does the same with others.

When in doubt, do a test. Try to witness this person’s conversation with another person and see if they are also too critical in this situation. So, don’t take these comments personally.

2 – Understand the messages objectively

So that what you hear from this type of person doesn’t hurt you, you need to listen to these messages objectively without trying to relate feelings to them. Instead of noticing how the person is saying something, pay attention to what exactly they mean.

This way, instead of listening and reacting, you hear and capture the correct message the person wanted to convey. For example, if a friend who is like that tells you that her clothes are not beautiful or matching, that doesn’t necessarily mean that she is trying to offend you by saying that you don’t understand anything about fashion.

When someone makes extremely dry and direct comments, don’t take it as an offense, but understand that this is the way that person uses to communicate and maybe even the only way they master to communicate.

3 – Consider this person a source of true feedback

In general, overly critical people can be a source of honest opinion. If they don’t like something, they certainly won’t hide it from anyone – even though they know they can hurt someone. So these people can be a good source of real feedback.

4 – Find out why certain comments upset you

When something hurts you, get to the root of the problem. If someone criticized your look and you were offended, is it really because of what the person said or is your own opinion of your look a little shaken? Find out what your weaknesses are – your Achilles heel – and invest in recovering the image you have of yourself. This way it will be easier not to get hit by these comments and criticisms.

5 – Don’t ask for opinions if you’re not ready to listen

One thing is for sure: if you ask too many critical people for their opinion, you will have to be strong to face the answer. If you’re already unsure about the subject, it’s best to leave it to someone else. Because a negative comment about something that is already uncertain can have a disastrous result.

6 – Don’t give too much value to criticism

People tend to place a high value on the opinion of others and when this refers to the opinion of people close to them, the value is even greater. However, when it comes to the opinion of people close to you who are overly critical, this attribution of value can have a serious impact on your life.

Valuing too much the opinion of overly critical people can lead you to believe that you have nothing good, that everything in the world is negative and that you should not invest in any attempt – after all, what these people do most is to discourage the ideas and wishes of the other.

With that in mind, even if the person is someone you love very much, try not to value that person’s opinion too much – especially about you. And invest in yourself, believe in yourself and leave criticism aside for a little while.

7 – Be kind to people like that

These overly critical people are not like that because they are happy to make negative comments about everything and everyone, they are like that because they have so much unhappiness inside them that they believe it’s impossible to find anything good in the world. And the fact that they are always criticizing everything makes it snowball, because the more she criticizes herself, the more she destroys the image she has of herself. And the more she criticizes others, the more she destroys the hope that a human being can have of being happy.

In view of this, we can see that these people do not need to be judged even more, they already judge themselves in excess and very rigidly. They need affection, affection and they need others to show them that there are wonderful things to discover about life.

8 – Avoid extremely critical people

If even with all this advice you feel that you are still very negatively affected by the comments and criticisms of these people, the ideal is to ignore them. If you can’t live with someone who is overly critical without being influenced by their negativity, it’s better to stay away from them and avoid conversations with them.

But if you don’t intend to walk away from this person because you love him or her, invest in positive attitudes and encourage a more positive view of the world. Combat criticism with praise, this can “disarm” the overly critical person and help them get along better with other people.