Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse can damage a person’s self esteem and confidence. Given that quite often or own sense of self worth often depends on where we think we sit with others people can end up feeling devalued and worthless when being abused emotionally. The shame and secrecy of what’s happening usually allows the abuse to continue as people with already low self esteem may lack assertiveness. Among the signs of emotional abuse are depression, anxiety, agitation, isolation, addiction or some kind of escapist behavior.

Although there are different kinds, emotional abuse usually falls into three patterns:

Aggressive: This involves blaming, accusing, threatening, name-calling, belittling, screaming, degrading insults or constant destructive criticism.

Minimising: This involves belittling consequences, isolating, accusations of exaggerating or inventing and offering solutions or ‘advice’.

Denial: This involves neglect, sulking, withholding attention, not listening to and distorting the other’s experiences.

Abusers tend to find it difficult to handle their own feelings and instead blame their problems on others instead. They never validate their victims experiences as that would be an acknowledgement of having done wrong but instead give a different spin on what has been happening, as if they are rewriting history. Not only can counselling help those who have been abused but it can also help the abuser address their own feelings of fear and powerlessness.

 

#emotionalabuse

Tags: abuse, confidence, counselling, self esteem, trauma