How often do you "stoop to their level"?

If someone insults and degrades you, do you insult and degrade them back? If someone is rude and disrespectful to you, are you rude and disrespectful to them? If so, is it an unavoidable instinctual reaction or are you making a point (and do excuse your behavior in hindsight by saying “they did it first”)?

I’ll admit that if someone insults me, my automatic reaction is often to insult them back. They hurt me, so I want them to hurt too. If I take just a second to think about what’s going on, I may refrain from doing so and take the high road. Sometimes on the internet I try to be more guarded because I know that if the other person starts swearing and insulting me I will come off a lot better (and be taken more seriously) if I don’t do the same. It’s hard to resist the temptation sometimes, though.

In real life, if someone is disrespectful toward me, I try to let them know that they are being so and refuse to engage them if they don’t change their behavior (“I’m not going to talk to you if…” is what I try to say rather than blow up—but of course sometimes I do just blow up). From experience I know that being disrespectful back solves nothing. People don’t learn from getting a “taste of their own medicine”. It just makes me feel bad in the end.