Title: Ways Bad Friends Can Hurt Your Health
Headings: 5 ways toxic friendships could be hurting your health
5 ways toxic friendships could be hurting your health
Yvette Manes
Friends should add value to your life.
They're raising your stress levels.
This can cause anxiety.
They pressure you to take unhealthy or dangerous risks
Peer pressure happens at all ages.
They get behind the wheel after drinking or getting high.
A friend should not put your life at risk.
They expose you to secondhand smoke.
Smoking indoors is not considerate.
You've picked up their unhealthy habits.
It's easy to develop similar lifestyle habits to friends.

Content: This can cause anxiety. Billion Photos/Shutterstock
A toxic friend is someone who is stressful to be around. They're in constant competition with you, they try to change you, they may be unreliable, argumentative, or expect too much from you. These behaviors can cause your stress and anxiety to rise to dangerous levels. A UCLA study of 122 healthy adults found that those with negative social experiences had higher levels of proinflammatory proteins which could lead to depression, hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. They pressure you to take unhealthy or dangerous risks
Peer pressure happens at all ages. Africa Studio/Shutterstock
At one time or another, many of us have been in a situation where we feel pressured to drink, smoke, do drugs, drive too fast, ignore doctor's orders, or partake in any number of other risky behaviors. Although peer pressure sounds like a schoolyard problem, there are many people who continue to deal with it well into adulthood. In an interview with Women's Health magazine, Elizabeth Lombardo, Ph.D. explained that a big red flag that your friendship is unhealthy is if they regularly shame you into doing things you don't want to do. They get behind the wheel after drinking or getting high.