When someone doesn’t like you, it’s so easy to feel like it’s your fault. You start to feel bad and doubt yourself while trying to figure out why your friends don’t like you and how to fix it.
The very first step you should take is figuring out the possible reasons for their dislike before making any extreme or rash decisions. This will help you decide if you should talk to them, apologize, or simply move on and find new friends who will appreciate you.
For whatever reasons your friends may not like you, there are plenty of ways that you can empower yourself and handle it with care so that you aren’t terribly affected or worried any longer.
But for now, here’s everything you need to take into account:
What You Should Do If Your Friends Don’t Like
1. Talk To Them
Sometimes all it takes is to just speak up and express how you feel about them acting strange towards you but you have to remember that no matter what, it’s not your problem how they feel towards you. It can help discover what the real problem is and figure things out.
If they tell you that they really don’t like you, there’s no point in continuing the friendship. However, we can’t always predict how someone is going to react.
They could turn it around and blame you entirely when it’s far off from the truth. This may hurt you further and may not be recommended in the case of fake and toxic friends.
However, if these friends are those that you know are good inside and have always been there for you, try asking them what the problem is.
2. Move On
One of the best things you can do when it comes to your friends not liking you is to completely walk away from your friendships.
It’s an incredibly difficult thing to handle when you aren’t treated with respect and your friend’s dislike towards you will only hurt you further.
It would be best to find new friends who see your worth and will respect everything about you.
Hanging on to people who don’t like you will only prove to be more challenging with time.
3. Find New Friends with Similar Interests
I’ll repeat this again, finding new friends with shared interests will be the best thing you could ever do for yourself.
It should never be your responsibility to control what other people think or feel towards you.
If someone still doesn’t want to be nice to you after everything you have done for them, do the right thing and invest your time in people who do like you and want to be around you.
4. Discover new hobbies to focus on yourself
Trying a new hobby can be extremely therapeutic and will help you feel better about yourself. It forces you to put all your attention on focusing on what you love rather than obsessing over how other people feel or think about you.
There is no amount of control you can have over this but what you can control is the things you choose to do that will only help you improve and appreciate yourself.
Self-care and self-love are the only two things you need when you feel discouraged that your friends don’t like you.
5. Change Your Ways
(This option applies to cases where if you are at fault or were a toxic friend.)
If you do discover that some of your friend’s dislike towards you might have something to do with the way you have treated or acted towards them, you might want to try changing your ways.
Perhaps if you are controlling or self-centered, you could try allowing your friends to pick the places to go or the things to do for a while.
It takes small changes in your behavior that might save your current or future friendships.
How To Know If They Really Don’t Like You
Body Language
Friends who don’t like you will show in terms of how they react to you when you talk or are near them. They may cross their hands which is an obvious sign that they are closed off or turn away from you when approaching them.
Whereas if you see your friend with open arms to inching towards you with a genuine smile on their face when they see you, it’s no doubt that they are happy to see you.
Another sign you can look out for is eye contact. Those that do not like you will not bother looking you in your eye or even when you are talking to them.
However, an excessive amount of eye contact could indicate them showing you their true negative feelings towards you.
One study even shows that when a person’s feet or body is turned away from you it usually indicates their lack of interest or desire to be around you.
They Leave You Out
This can happen so often than expected. Those that really don’t like you will not want you to be around them or in the friend group meaning they will often leave you out of invites or conveniently ‘forget’ to include you when making plans.
You’ll often hear about places they’ve been without you and might even hear a few times that they thought you were too busy to come – in other words, they will make up stories to get away from being called out.
Forced smiles and conversations
A pretty common sign that your friends don’t like you is when you can tell they are forcing themselves to speak or find something to say.
A really quick smile that doesn’t reach the eyes could be interpreted as a forced smile but don’t take this as the only sign to prove that your friend does not like you.
It could be they are distracted or are facing some sort of issue but you will be able to feel and tell the difference between a restrained/forced smiles if you really know the person.
Also, if you notice that your friend constantly checks the time or looks like they’re in a hurry to get away from you, then it’s highly likely they aren’t interested in hanging out with you.
They Bluntly Ignore You
Those that don’t like you will ignore you on more occasions than normal.
Whether that’s you asking them a question or simply discussing something, they will surely show their lack of interest by turning away or even walking away mid-conversation which is quite extreme.
They may even talk over you and start another random conversation rather than listening to what you have to say in full.
It will be incredibly useful to know the difference between friends who actually like you and this will help you determine if your friends like you or not in case their standoffish behavior only occurred a few times which could have been for any number of reasons that aren’t related to you.
Reasons Why You Friends May Not Like You
There are many possibilities and reasons why a friend could suddenly stop liking you or it’s possible that they never did in the first place. Here are a few ideas that may help answer your questions:
You Don’t Share The Same Interests Anymore
When friends no longer share the same interests, it’s easy to split apart because what kept you together were the things you had a shared interest with.
It’s normal to experience a change of taste for everything in life but this never gives anyone the right to treat you bad or show they outward dislike towards you especially if you were close friends before.
See also: Why Do Friends Change? (Plus 4 Easy Ways To Cope)
You’ve Done Something To Them
It could have been a word or a mistake that triggered they dislike for you or some unresolved issue you guys could have had in the past that’s fueled their dislike of you.
We all make mistakes and if fights or arguments are left unresolved, it could very well impact a friendship.
They Were Only Using You
Fake friends are known to only be your friend for namesake or to just get something out of you. They expect you to be there for them but will never return the favor.
They may even pretend to like you until they get what they want and show their dislike towards you when they can get nothing more.
See also: How Do Fake Friends Act? 13 Signs To Lookout For
You Might Have Undesirable Behaviors
In some cases, there might be a few undesirable things you do that could be putting off your friends. You could be controlling, criticizing, and even clingy which many people find overwhelming.
You may even be self-centered and don’t allow them to have a chance to speak or enjoy themselves when they hang around you.
This really depends on your friendship and whether you are guilty of these behaviors.
Leave a Reply