Emotional Abuse

Emotional Abuse

Often referred to as psychological abuse or mental abuse, emotional abuse is perhaps the most insidious kind of abuse. It is the hardest to prove and thought to be the most common kind of abuse. It often comes hand in hand with the other forms of abuse and serves to cause further distress in the life of the target. At its most basic, emotional abuse is someone subjecting or exposing another person to behavior that can be psychologically damaging. It is often a struggle for power and dominance, and can manifest in a variety of areas in life – between spouses, parents, and children, even employers and their employees.

How to Recognize Emotional Abuse

It is hard to pinpoint specific behaviors for emotional abuse. Generally, doctors agree that a pattern of repeated and purposeful acts of psychological aggression can be considered emotional abuse. These acts are often sub-categorized into things like verbal aggression, dominant behaviors, jealous behaviors, and even financially controlling behaviors. Verbal is the most obvious and noticeable to the outside world, while dominant behaviors can be more subtle, ranging from trying to control who a person sees to what they wear or eat. The threat of physical harm to the target or someone they care for is another usually successful means of emotional abuse. A person who wants to be in absolute control of a relationship, whatever kind it may be, is a potential emotional abuser. Emotional abuse is never a single action – it must be repeated.

Dangers of Emotional Abuse

Due to its extended time frame being a key component of emotional abuse, it can often have far reaching and hard to avoid psychological ramifications. Survivors of psychological aggressions often display serious disorders like chronic depressions, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, drug addiction and dissociation. They can come to avoid personal interactions and even come to be unable to identify and process their own emotions long term, leading to complications that could severely impact one’s life in the future. It is a sad reality that the damage of one’s sense of self can be easily done and almost impossible to recover.

Dealing with Emotional Abuse

Here at Mentaline.com, we understand that emotional abuse is a very real and hugely negative force in one’s life. Book an online session with one of our trained professionals to get help sorting through the experiences that have brought you to us and focus on getting you and your life back on track. With help from our other online resources, you can find support from people who have gone through similar experience and come out the other side as strong and emotionally healthy.

Definition of Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse is the repeated and purposeful exposure of one person to psychological acts of aggression by another.

Symptoms of / Reasons for Emotional Abuse

• Chronic depressions
• Anxiety
• Post traumatic stress disorder
• A severe reaction to being chastised or scolded
• Dissociation
• One person completely controlling another

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