Taking the knives out of my back

[justanotherguy]

I've spent most of my life taking the metaphorical 'knives' out of my back from desperate attention-seekers. I'm so used to it it doesn't even bother me anymore. There are long-seated cultural reasons for this, but after nearly 40 years of it I'm pretty well fed up. I know the type of person well and have developed into a person who will tell them what I think to their face, behind their backs, and online too. I'm sure I'm  becoming quite annoying for them to deal with because of this but I'm not sure what else to do at the moment. The future I can see is going to be very, very hard for these kinds of people & I don't want to sugar coat things for them from my point of view.

[tyme]

Hey @justanotherguy ,

I'm really interested to hear a bit more. Sorry, but I'm a bit confused. 

Do you mean people have used you and leeched off you in the past so that now you keep them at arms length by telling them what you think?

Sorry to sound so ignorant.

Kindest, tyme

[justanotherguy]

Hi @tyme , it's got to that stage in my life. I grew up agreeing with everybody as it was the easiest way to avoid conflict, but now those same people don't know where the boudaries are for a decent conversation. In this regard people like me unwittingly contributed to the problem years ago, so now I try and converse with people in a way that doesn't end in them walking all over me. But if people want to push my buttons I will tell them very clearly what's going on in the best way I can.