'Dementors' in Prada

Occasionally, dark plumes of negativity waft into our lives. These friends/acquaintances/co-workers/relatives are emotional vampires, and they feed off our own contentment and confidence twisting and churning it into insecurity. Some times we can spot these 'dementors' from miles away, and other times they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. 
For the most part, I’ve viewed these individuals with sympathy. They are in turmoil with their own existence— an existence with which we don’t wish to intertwine. If we do, they will consume us and our positivity and self-assuredness along with it. 
They successfully warp our impression so that we feel apologetic for their lives. Our altruistic nature makes us ripe for a guilt trip, and our positive spirit is so easily drained by negative people that we in part just give up from emotional exhaustion. 
We’ve all been there. We’ve all been wholly drained inside and out by spending the afternoon with a person like this. It isn’t that they’ve wronged us in any particular way (yet), but they are a billowing plume of negativity sucking our energy with every bit of gossip, self-delusion, complaint, and insult (playful or direct). 
They simply are not positive influences, yet we are held captive by our own inability to say no, to turn away from a friend, and by our own delusions that we can save them from their own negativity (as if they want to be saved from it). 
This morning after devouring fresh warm crepes from my favorite creperie, I took a long walk with one of my dearest and wisest friends. Along the walk we continued to catch up while we worked off the scrumptious crepes and lattes. I adore this friend for a thousand reasons, but mostly I adore her because our conversations are often soul fulfilling introspections in between laughter. My mind is always at work during our talks, and I always leave more centered and aware than when I arrived. She’s been the person I phone first, and I try to always reciprocate with a good listening ear. It was while I was listening that she relayed one of the clearest analogies for these type of people that I’ve ever heard. 

Everyone is living in the same high-rise, but not everyone has the same view. Some people are on the highest floor and their view of the outside world is expansive. Some people, more negative people I believe, are living on the lowest levels with a very limited viewpoint. 

This analogy makes it clear that your view of the world shapes your happiness within it. These emotional vampires are bound and shackled by their view from their building floor of spiritual residence. 
How much or how little we allow these emotional vampires to take from us is our own learning process.