{"id":10835,"date":"2019-05-23T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T10:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=10835"},"modified":"2019-08-15T06:42:10","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T10:42:10","slug":"identifying-emotional-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2019\/05\/identifying-emotional-abuse.html","title":{"rendered":"How Do I Know if I Am Being Emotionally Abused?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-10838\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2019\/05\/character-1797362_1920-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"character-1797362_1920\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/>It&#8217;s not uncommon to hear someone say, &#8220;He\/she is emotionally abusive,&#8221; but what does that really mean?<\/p>\n<p>Just because someone is negative or says things you don&#8217;t like, doesn&#8217;t mean they are emotionally abusive. If you hurt because of a break-up, have an argument, or someone yells, that is not abuse. But when the volume turns up, arguing becomes screaming that turns to name-calling, and someone denigrates\u00a0your person, then you are moving into emotional abuse.<\/p>\n<p>Emotional abusers use their words as weapons. It&#8217;s all about control. Do as I tell you\u00a0or I will put you in your place. The weapon is usually\u00a0verbal attacks\u00a0and\u00a0criticism. It takes the form of belittling, put down, and\u00a0gaslighting to\u00a0make you think you are crazy.<\/p>\n<p>Emotional abusers try to make you think you are responsible for their unhappiness, so they play the blame game regularly. When you try to hold them accountable for their part of the problem, it&#8217;s all your fault.<\/p>\n<p>When emotional abusers talk about you, their eyes roll in contempt. They call you stupid or inept. They may refuse to talk to you, treat you in cold and distant ways and isolate you from other people. Sarcasm is used to mock you. Affection is withheld as a way to punish you from getting out of line. And then an apology may come, but the cycle soon repeats.<\/p>\n<p>The feelings that follow emotional abuse are usually insult, worthlessness, confusion and wounding. The bully tactics result in a loss of your esteem, self-loathing and a doubt in your perceptions and assessment of things. Emotional abuse\u00a0can be overt or more under cover, making it harder to recognize at times. Eventually, you become your own internal critic and worry that you might just be as bad as the person paints you to be.<\/p>\n<p>A few more markers of emotional abuse include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A constant dissatisfaction regarding\u00a0who you are as a person<\/li>\n<li>A\u00a0demand to attend to their needs over yours<\/li>\n<li>Probing and prodding for every detail of your life apart from them<\/li>\n<li>Being labelled selfish for basic self-care<\/li>\n<li>Being condescending<\/li>\n<li>Feeling like you have to walk on &#8220;eggshells&#8221; around the person<\/li>\n<li>Putting you down in public and in front of others<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you feel you are being emotionally abused, find a therapist who can help you respond to the manipulation and control. It takes a lot of work and intention to turn the emotional abuse cycle around, but with help, you can regain your dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s not uncommon to hear someone say, &#8220;He\/she is emotionally abusive,&#8221; but what does that really mean? Just because someone is negative or says things you don&#8217;t like, doesn&#8217;t mean they are emotionally abusive. If you hurt because of a break-up, have an argument, or someone yells, that is not abuse. But when the volume&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[913,914,917],"tags":[602,4417,1192,3585,3623],"class_list":["post-10835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-couple-relationships","category-family-relationships-2","category-friend-relationships","tag-abuse","tag-control-and-manipulation","tag-dysfunctional-relationships","tag-emotional-abuse","tag-gaslighting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Do I Know if I Am Being Emotionally Abused?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2019\/05\/identifying-emotional-abuse.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Do I Know if I Am Being Emotionally Abused?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s not uncommon to hear someone say, &#8220;He\/she is emotionally abusive,&#8221; but what does that really mean? Just because someone is negative or says things you don&#8217;t like, doesn&#8217;t mean they are emotionally abusive. If you hurt because of a break-up, have an argument, or someone yells, that is not abuse. But when the volume&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2019\/05\/identifying-emotional-abuse.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-23T10:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-08-15T10:42:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2019\/05\/character-1797362_1920-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Do I Know if I Am Being Emotionally Abused?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2019\/05\/identifying-emotional-abuse.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Do I Know if I Am Being Emotionally Abused?","og_description":"It&#8217;s not uncommon to hear someone say, &#8220;He\/she is emotionally abusive,&#8221; but what does that really mean? Just because someone is negative or says things you don&#8217;t like, doesn&#8217;t mean they are emotionally abusive. If you hurt because of a break-up, have an argument, or someone yells, that is not abuse. 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Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10835"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11000,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10835\/revisions\/11000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}