Avisa Recovery

10 Subtle Signs of Emotional Abuse You Shouldn’t Ignore

a girl with Signs of Emotional Abuse

If you have ever found someone limiting their contact with everyone, have experienced anxiety and panic attacks, or feel bad about themselves most of the time and fear talking about their emotions, it is most likely that they are depicting one or more signs of emotional abuse. 

Approximately 48.4% of women and 48.8% of men have experienced at least one sign of emotional abuse by their intimate partner. This indicates how frequent emotional abuse is, and this seriously depletes one’s mental health.

This blog will help you discover 10 subtle and common signs of emotional abuse that you can observe in people around you and see if they are being emotionally abusive towards you at any point in time.

You have to think about your feelings; choose for yourself this time; it’s a sign!

We offer holistic support tailored to your emotional and psychological needs, combining the best evidence-based therapies with real, compassionate care.

What is Emotional Abuse? 

When it comes to emotions, they are easy to neglect and difficult to look after. Emotional abuse doesn’t leave scars on the body but is more painful.

It gets deeper if not taken care of at the right time. Unlike physical abuse, it leaves the victim confused and often questioning themselves. In the United States, emotional abuse impacts individuals across all demographics, from children to adults, and can result in long-lasting mental health issues. 

Emotional abuse can happen in any type of relationship- be it romantic, familial, or even professional. You need to check for these signs and deal with them before it’s too late.

10 Subtle Signs of Emotional Abuse 

Figuring out signs of emotional abuse is tough, but once you start observing behaviors and patterns, it becomes doable. Here are 10 subtle signs of emotional abuse:

1. Lack of Constructive Criticism

Regularly criticizing your actions, thoughts, and ideas while being defensive and not explaining the reasons is one of the first signs of emotional abuse. 

2. Isolation

When a person starts isolating you from others, limiting your interactions with everyone, and making you dependent only on him for all your needs, it’s a sign of limiting your emotional stimulation.

3. Constant Monitoring

Updating your loved ones about your tasks is normal and should happen with concern. But if the person starts controlling and monitoring all your actions, it indicates a lack of trust and leads to emotional abuse.

4. Gaslighting

This phenomenon makes you believe in something that’s not true, thus doubting your memory and feelings and questioning your reality. It leads you to lose confidence in yourself and depend on others’ versions of the story.

5. Constant Threats

Threats need not be just physical. If someone is constantly talking to you in a way that makes you feel threatened, it’s more likely that the person is emotionally abusing you. You often succumb to their orders to avoid conflict.

6. Giving you an inferiority complex

Healthy comparison leads you to become a better version of yourself. However, if someone is always disrespecting your efforts and comparing you to others, it’s a sign of emotional abuse.

7. Unnecessary Blaming

If someone is holding you accountable for their actions, it indicates a lack of ownership and shifting the entire blame on you is a sign of emotional abuse.

8. Passing Passive Aggressive Comments

Being sarcastic and impolite about something that is bothering them makes you feel unsure of your actions. These passive-aggressive comments can lead to unnecessary power dynamics and are a sign of emotional abuse.

9. Emotional Negligence

Instead of addressing concerns directly, some people withhold their emotions for you, like a lack of love, affection, and care when they are upset with you. Occasionally, this is acceptable depending on the situation, but repetitive behavior can be emotionally draining for the other person.

10. Making you feel undeserving

When people you love make you feel undeserving by never celebrating your achievements, belittling your gains, and making you doubt your skills, it’s heartbreaking. Still, at the same time, it’s emotional abuse.

The Impact of Emotional Abuse 

Getting emotionally abused by people you care about is the worst thing to experience. It can leave you feeling confused about yourself and deplete your worth. Here’s how emotional abuse subtly impacts your mental and physical health:

1. Decrease in self-worth

If people you admire, love, and care about start abusing you emotionally, ignoring your needs, and always criticizing your actions, it leaves your mind confused, leading to a phenomenon called a negative self-fulfilling prophecy. It can change your internal dialogue and how you think about yourself, hence decreasing your self-worth.

2. Chronic mental health conditions

Emotional abuse in various forms has the power to increase the stress levels in someone, leading to conditions like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder experiences. It can further lead to physical symptoms like migraine, insomnia, fatigue, emotional eating, and panic attacks.

3. Developing a lack of trust in relationships

Once you experience a bad relationship, you tend to lose confidence in all people and every relationship. This can lead to self-sabotaging and can result in loneliness and a lack of good relationships in your life.

How to Recognize Emotional Abuse in Your Life 

It’s difficult to observe and point out instances where you are getting emotionally abused. These pointers can help you recognize signs of emotional abuse.

1. A recurring pattern

People who want to take charge of someone often repeat their behaviors over time in various ways. Start tracking these situations where they lose their cool, don’t take ownership of their words and actions, and belittle you frequently. This can be a starting point for you to make your decision.

2. Constant negligence

If the other person is constantly neglecting your feelings, no matter the situation, it’s likely that he/she doesn’t care about you and is abusing you emotionally.

3. Toxic manipulation

Making you succumb to their needs and wants is a sign of manipulating you to believe what they believe. This is one of the strongest signs of emotional abuse.

What to Do If You’re Experiencing Emotional Abuse 

Here’s how you can treat the situation whenever you experience emotional abuse.

1. Accept the situation

Start saying no to this emotional roller coaster by accepting what you feel every time you interact with people who intentionally or unintentionally abuse you emotionally.

2. Avoid self-blame

Stop blaming yourself for everything and start looking at the situations as the way they are. Viewing your conditions from a third point of view can help.

3. Set boundaries and adhere to them

You know how it feels when someone is hard on others, so don’t give too much of yourself to people around you, and always reciprocate what you experience.

4. Take a stand for yourself

Don’t expect others to speak for you when you don’t dare to do so yourself. If you feel something is wrong, talk to the person and try to solve it firsthand.

5. Talk to your close ones

If you experience mental distress and fail to solve the situation yourself, look for people who can help you overcome this situation.

6. Look for professional help

If the issue persists and you think you need to talk to a person out of your ecosystem, consider therapy and give yourself space to vent out.

7. Focus on self-improvement

Once you shift your focus to improving yourself in every way, you know how to handle situations better. Sometimes, it’s you and not them.

8. Healing takes time

Learn to give yourself some time, as recovering from an emotionally abusive relationship is tough. 

How Avisa Recovery Can help you with emotional abuse 

Getting the right help is not always easy. You can end up sharing your feelings with someone who doesn’t respect your boundaries, and this will do more harm than good.

Through comprehensive assessment, we develop a personalized treatment plan for people dealing with emotional abuse. Evidence-based therapy and a safe environment will help you heal from emotionally difficult situations. At Avisa Recovery, our holistic approach ensures you receive emotional, psychological, and practical support tailored to your journey of healing.

Tired of fighting addiction and mental health struggles?

Ignoring both deepens the struggle. Our holistic approach—detox, therapy, and medication-assisted treatment—can help you heal. Take the first step today.

Frequently Asked Questions 

Q: What is narcissistic emotional abuse?

A: This involves manipulative behaviors by a narcissist to control, demean, or exploit others, often through gaslighting, belittling, or withholding affection.

Q: What is a trigger of emotional abuse?

A: Unresolved anger, power struggles, and dealing with past trauma are some of the common triggers of emotional abuse.

Q: What are the 5 cycles of emotional abuse?

A: The five cycles include tension building, the incident (abusive act), reconciliation (apology or excuses), calm (false peace), and repetition, where the abuse occurs again.

Q: How will I identify emotional abuse?

A: Emotional abuse can be identified through recurring patterns of manipulation, criticism, gaslighting, control, and behaviors that make you feel unworthy or isolated.

Q: What does emotional damage mean?

A: Emotional damage refers to the psychological harm caused by abusive behaviors, leading to low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, or difficulty forming healthy relationships.

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