Emotional abuse (psychological abuse) is a way of controlling another person using emotions. They often do this by criticizing, shaming, blaming, and using abusive language. It is a more difficult type of abuse to understand because it is not physical. But emotional abuse also has major consequences. Emotional abuse damages a person's self-esteem, independence and mental health. It can be done openly or covertly, but in both cases, it destroys the self-confidence of the person exposed and people begin to doubt their perceptions and realities. In this way, the abuser can control the other person as he intended. While emotional abuse is common in romantic relationships and marriages, it can also occur among friends, family members, and co-workers.
Ultimately, the emotionally abused person feels trapped. Although they are too wounded to endure the relationship any longer, they are also afraid to leave. That is, the cycle continues until you realize this situation and do something.
If you are having difficulty understanding whether your relationship is abusive, think about how your interactions with your lover, spouse, friend, co-worker or family member make you feel.
How can we recognize?
- They commit character assassination (an attack to damage someone's reputation) usually includes the word always. For example, “You are always late.”
- They call derogatory names
- They humiliate and make people feel unimportant by shouting and swearing
- They act bossy
- Society They reveal your secrets and shortcomings.
- They remain indifferent when the other person is talking about something that is important to them (usually they support it with body language movements such as rolling their eyes, shaking their heads, sighing, etc.)
- As if they were joking. They make sarcastic remarks (when you say something, they usually reply like "You take everything seriously")
- They make fun of your appearance and clothes
- They always want to know where you are. They want you to answer calls and messages immediately and are very insistent about it
- They spy on social media (asking for the password of your social media accounts, etc.)
- They make and implement decisions on your behalf
- They take control of you financially (such as managing a joint account, making you ask for money from them)
- They blame you for their problems, they are there for you and support you enough
- They exhibit extremely jealous behavior in the relationship, accusing them of things that do not exist, such as "You are cheating on me"
- They use feelings of guilt with sentences such as "You owe me this", "I did these for you"
Not doing what an abusive person wants can result in an explosion of anger. This is a way to both control the person and make them feel ashamed for “not listening.”
If you feel hurt, disappointed, confused, misunderstood, depressed, anxious, or worthless every time you interact, your relationship is emotionally damaged. There is a high probability of misuse. Don't fall into the "it's not that bad" trap.
Remember, everyone deserves to be treated with kindness and respect.
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