I’m aware of her toxicity, but I’ve also dealt with toxic people my whole life. I truly believe there’s a difference between people being toxic because it’s who they are and will never learn better, and people that are only toxic because they are around a lot of toxic people and it’s all they know (while in a normal situation they would choose not to be toxic).

I was a toxic/manipulative teenager, but when my behaviour ended 3 really good friendships, I decided I was the problem and needed to pay attention to my behaviour. Now I can see that I was alway surrounded by toxic people growing up (my dads side of the family were mostly alcoholics).

I (at least I think) have helped her to identify some toxic behaviour (especially emotional abuse and manipulation), but she’s still stuck living in a toxic environment. And she has been a good friend to me, which is nice because I don’t actually have a lot of friends. Over the years I have learned to stand up for myself, so if she decides to start being toxic towards me, I won’t let it happen.