Surrounded by Liars
(and why the DISC assessment sharpens your judgement)
Surrounded by Liars is a book about how truth is bent, filtered, and selectively presented, often without dramatic intent, and sometimes without conscious awareness.
The book identifies several recurring energy-draining archetypes such as the Bully, the Drama Queen, the Perfectionist, the Narcissist, the Chronic Victim and the Passive-Aggressive. Different personalities, different tactics but the same outcome: depleted focus, reduced motivation, and emotional exhaustion.
Energy vampires are not universally powerful. They drain energy by triggering something specific in the people around them. Behavioural differences matter more than we might expect.
Reds often lose energy through power struggles and unnecessary confrontation.
Yellows are pulled into drama, reassurance, and emotional noise.
Greens are drained by obligation, loyalty, and the inability to disengage.
Blues exhaust themselves trying to fix, analyse, or correct what cannot be fixed.
Surrounded by Energy Vampires offers concrete countermeasures: setting boundaries, blocking time, reducing exposure, increasing discipline, and reclaiming control over attention and effort.
It also shows how many people drain themselves by over-adapting, overthinking, over-giving, or overreacting even long after the “energy vampire” has left the room.
What the book cannot determine on its own though is where your personal energy losses are greatest.
That is where the DISC assessment becomes a precision tool which helps you to:
- identify which vampire types affect you most
- understand why certain interactions linger and others do not
- apply structure, discipline, and boundaries in ways that fit your natural style
Energy management is not about becoming tougher. It is about becoming more accurate.
Read the book to recognise the energy vampires around you.
Take the DISC assessment to stop feeding them and to stop draining yourself in the process.
Meet Thomas Erikson
Thomas Erikson is an internationally recognized behaviourist, keynote speaker, and the author behind the Surrounded by series.
Take the DISC Assessment
Understand how you respond to the people around you, and how they respond to you.
You will receive a detailed 25-page report that will reflect your balance across the four DISC types – Dominance, Influence, Stability and Compliance. Or, the four colours red, yellow, green and blue – if you prefer those.
International editions of the book Surrounded by Liars
Surrounded by Liars has been or will be published in the following languages.
Arabic
Bulgarian
Croatian
Dutch
English (UK)
English (US)
Estonian
Finnish
German
Greek
Hebrew
Italian
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Slovak
Spanish
Swedish
