Emotional abuse

Emotional abuse is also referred to as psychological abuse and it is subjected to one person by another who is seeking to control them. The emotionally abused person develops fear of the other person out of constant verbal abuse, disapproval and criticism among others. People who inflict emotional abuse on others do it through intimidation, manipulation and humiliation as well as instilling fear. By doing so, the victim looses their sense of identity, self-esteem, confidence and self-concept. They become brainwashed and stop being themselves as they loose their personal value. They feel useless and unworthy and thus become unrealistic and in many cases find fault in only themselves and not in the abuser. They feel that they deserve the abuse and cling to the abuser with apologies as they seek acceptance for mistakes they never did. They also feel alone and feel that they are worthless and no one can accept them and this is the major reason why they stay in abusive situations.

Emotional abuse comes in many forms one of them being abusive expectations. In such a scenario, the abuser makes unrealistic demands on the victim. Such demands include too much attention whereby they demand the victim to be with them even when it is not called for. The sad thing is that they never seem to get enough no matter how much they get. The abuser may then result to constant criticism of the victim if he does not get what he wants and this is what amounts to emotional abuse.

Aggressing is another form of emotional abuse where the abuser becomes aggressive to the victim. This can be through threats, name-calling as well as blaming them and accusing them of unrealistic things. Aggression can also be used in form of criticism, which is intended at belittling, controlling and intimidating the victim. Constant chaos is initiated by the abuser whereby he picks up arguments and portrays drama addiction tendencies. The abuser will keep on causing conflicts unnecessarily. Denying is another form of emotional abuse where the abuser withdraws emotional support when it is mostly needed with the intention to hurt, punish and humiliate the victim. The abuser also denies ever hurting the victim and withholds through punishing and withdrawing from the victim. The abuser goes dumb and deaf on the victim and this is referred to as the silent treatment.

Emotional abusers also seek to control their victims through domination, which leads the victim to loose who they are. Emotional blackmail is another tactic employed by abusers whereby they play on his guilt, fear and values to get what they want. The abuser also takes on validation where he terms the victims concerns as reached out of being too sensitive since they do not want to acknowledge the reality. Emotional abusers are often people who went through abusive relationships as either children or grownups. They become aggressive and brutal out of their own experiences got from an abusive home. These abusers also tend to be people who are too jealous and too possessive and result to controlling others thus abusing them emotionally. Emotional abuse can lead to depression, low self-esteem, isolation, drugs and substance abuse as well as withdrawal from reality.