8 Warning Signs That a Relationship is Emotionally Abusive

he worst you can expect from your partner is an abusive relationship; physical abuse is terrible and not hidden from anyone when it happens. Emotional abuse in a relationship is a hidden danger and is often devastating and excruciating. People are exposed to emotional abuse in a marital relationship because they do not recognize its signs and symptoms, so what are the characters? What are the signs and symptoms of emotional abuse?

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”― Carl Gustav Jung

Have you ever been in an abusive relationship?

If this happens, you will recognize the signs of emotional abuse mentioned in this article; even if you have not experienced such an experience, it is good to recognize the early signs of an abusive relationship. This may help you in your marriage; you may not realize that you are going through this relationship often, which applies to men and women.

The signs of emotional abuse can be very vague, but some warning signs may help you anticipate what you are about. You can also do things to avoid such abusive relationships, and you will learn about them in this article.

All people, men, and women, go through a lot in their relationships, before or after marriage. Most of them tend to put up with a lot, not realizing that serious problems will appear in their relationship sooner or later. The sooner you recognize the signs of emotional abuse, the better.

And before delving into it further, you need to understand what emotional abuse means and who the abuser is.

What is abuse?

As for the relationship, abuse is the excessive use of force that exploits the trust and intimate ties in the relationship, which makes the victim vulnerable.

“The greater the power, the greater the risk of abuse,” said — the Irish thinker “Edmund Burke” (Edmund Burke).

Abuse is practiced in different ways and is not limited to physical violence; it is an attempt to control another person’s behavior.

What is an abusive relationship?

An abusive relationship includes emotional, psychological, physical, and verbal abuse and financial control.

1) Physical abuse:

This may include, but is not limited to, actions such as punching, hitting, pulling hair, and kicking, as you sometimes see in cases of domestic violence and other relationships.

2) Emotional abuse:

It can be in the form of bullying, teasing, humiliation, intimidation, threats, and contempt; betrayal is another form.

3) Psychological abuse:

It manifests itself in harassment, psychological torture, reproaches, and humiliating methods of putting a person under stress, making him experience feelings of hopelessness and intellectual powerlessness.

4) Verbal abuse:

They include swearing and obscene language, often leading to a person’s low self-esteem.

5) Financial abuse:

They occur when you are not allowed to keep or use your money or dispose of it.

“The quiet and merciless collapse of self-esteem is the most dangerous; it is a violation of the spirit,” the British novelist Rachel Abbott (Rachel Abbott).

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What is emotional abuse?

Emotional abuse is also known as psychological abuse. It involves cunning exploitation that the abuser systematically performs through non-physical actions, recognizing it by several signs and symptoms of emotional abuse.

Its signs include intimidation, threats, criticism, insults, mockery, blame, defamation, undermining, guilt, ignoring or exclusion, humiliation, financial exploitation, emotional bullying, and behavior intended to impose control.

According to the encyclopedia “Wikipedia” (Wikipedia), emotional abuse is characterized by subjecting or subjecting the other person to behavior that may lead to psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Who is the abuser

The abuser is also human, but he has a destructive complex and problem that no one should underestimate; this person’s actions are intentional. His behavior is conscious most of the time; he is aware of what he is doing but not necessarily the underlying reason why he is doing it.

The abusive person learns to manipulate and control behavior from various sources, such as peers, role models, and prevailing cultural trends. When he reaches adulthood, his evasive behavior becomes automatic.

Emotional abuse in marriage:

Falling in love is so wonderful that you often overlook the possible problems that may occur, including getting into an abusive relationship. You fall in love, get married quickly, and tend to give up entirely in marriage to make your partner happy, so much so that you lose sight of seeing the early signs of an abusive relationship slowly creeping into your life.

Love can sometimes hurt during this process, and you also face marital problems, but an emotionally abusive relationship is a little different, more intense, and more dangerous. Violence or abuse does not appear in the connection at the very beginning; it develops slowly over time, and the more sacrifices you make, the faster the alarm sounds.

Everyone wants to find love in their life. Still, no one ever plans or thinks about entering into an abusive relationship, and some of those who go through this experience swear never to enter into another relationship.

“You have the right to form your thoughts and opinions, to make your own decisions, to do things your way sometimes, defend those rights,” he said — writer and psychologist “Beverly Engel” (Beverly Engel).

One of the first early signs of an abusive relationship is your gut feeling that things are not going well; it often takes approximately five to seven cases of violence before the abuser decides to leave the abuser.

Underestimating the other person or the lack of feelings of love in a partner can also lead to an abusive relationship. It is easy to avoid this relationship if you can detect the initial signs of it. If your partner is doing any of the following, you may be in an abusive relationship.

Eight signs of emotional abuse in a relationship:

Be very careful of these warning signs in a relationship because if you experience them, you may be in an abusive relationship without realizing it.

Even ordinary people sometimes show signs of emotional abuse. Still, if these things are acute or frequent, they may be accurate indicators of an emotionally abusive relationship. You should evaluate this based on your gut feeling toward your partner.

Also, in this article, you will find practical steps or suggestions that may help you deal with emotional abuse problems if you encounter them in your life.

Here are some signs and symptoms of emotional abuse:

1) Speed of commitment and submission:

This is one of the first signs of emotional abuse; your partner may accept the relationship firmly, pressuring you to get involved before you are ready to do so. He may want to comply more, force you; he may also show a desire to marry you as quickly as possible, or he may flatter you much more than expected to win you over.

While these things happen in everyday situations, be careful because they can also be early warning signs of an emotionally abusive relationship. Phrases like “you are the love of my life, I have never loved someone as much as I loved you” may pressure you to commit immediately.

What should you do

Do not rush and tell your partner that you will think carefully about it and decide; there is no need to hurry. Love needs time to mature, so keep things going at a slow pace until you are entirely sure of what you want, do not make a commitment and succumb to pressure so as not to regret this later.

2) Controlling and jealous behavior:

Your partner may be of controlling nature and wants to control the way you dress, the places you go, and the things you do, or he may call you constantly, make unexpected visits, and sometimes accuse you of betrayal or blame you for something. You didn’t do either for his jealousy or for the sadistic pleasure he feels when doing so; the occurrence of such things sounds the alarm because they may be signs and symptoms of emotional abuse.

Jealousy is a negative feeling, evidence of insecurity, excessive possessiveness, and extreme jealousy may lead to an abusive relationship. The partner sometimes tends to believe that he is the dominant person or that all decisions belong to him because he usually heads the association. It is good to step aside and let your partner make decisions, but do not let him think that you will meet all his expectations.

If your partner is a little jealous, tells you how much he loves you and can’t stand to see you with someone else, or allows you to get closer to anyone, this is not called love. Still, an attempt to control, when you are in love, the relationship is based on trust, sincerity, and freedom, which means that the partner gives you confidence wherever you go or whoever you are with and the freedom to be yourself.

True love always gives freedom, so make sure you don’t see jealousy as a sign of a partner’s intense love for you or control to protect you; instead, these may be signs of emotional abuse.

What should you do

Learn to refuse, do what you want, including how you dress (depending on your culture and Society), and visit your family and friends without thinking or hesitation; there is no party in the relationship higher than the other.

So both parties have to solve problems and make decisions together. Do not give in to your partner’s jealous and controlling style because this may determine the pattern of your future relationship, or the partner may expect you to do what you are always told if you consent to his orders once.

“Trying to force someone to fall in love with you is useless, just like trying to control the choice of the one you love.” American actor “James Earl Jones.”

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3) Love of possession and solitude:

Your partner may want you to always talk to him or be with him, and he hates being social. He comes up with reasons to convince you that being with him is better than being with others, so a partner of this type tries to isolate you directly or indirectly from the world and keep you to himself.

Suppose you submit to the possessive behavior of this person. In that case, you will lose contact with your family and friends, which will completely distance you from them and the rest of the world, which is not good. It is one of the signs of emotional abuse. If your relationship is healthy and based on sincere love, you should thrive in a society where loved ones and friends surround you.

What should you do

Involve your family and friends in the relationship, or meet other couples and people; make this a habit from the very beginning so that you know from your partner’s reactions whether he is a possessive person and wants to isolate you from others.

4) High expectations and humiliation:

The partner may expect you to be an ideal person, to satisfy all his needs and desires, and if you do not do this or make mistakes, you will be punished for this.

He may resent you afterward and ostracize you, do everything necessary to degrade you as a kind of punishment; he will humiliate you to make you resent yourself.

He may insult you, humiliate you, disgrace you, publicly degrade you, to feel helpless.

Don’t be fooled by anything because these are signs of emotional abuse in a relationship; everyone makes mistakes, so forgive yourself, too, when you make mistakes.

What should you do

Set boundaries, face your partner’s unrealistic expectations, and do not allow him to control your life or humiliate you, do these things early in the relationship, and live with setting boundaries about acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

5) Hypersensitivity:

Your partner may feel easily offended, or some slip-ups are considered a personal attack; you may think that everything you say may upset your partner. So you suppress your feelings, which is a problem if it happens often, and it may be one of the signs of emotional abuse practiced by your partner.

No one is perfect, and you need to remember that all relationships have problems; there are times when your partner disappoints and upsets him; so accept this fact.

What should you do

You need to confront your partner and solve problems in your marriage or relationship rather than adapt to his hypersensitivity and if you are afraid to talk to him. You cannot express your feelings and, as a result, reconsider your decision to be in a relationship with someone like him; you need a more understanding person who does not take things personally or prepares them as an attack on him.

6) Mood swings:

Perhaps your partner is irritable; his actions are unpredictable, and he suffers mood swings. Maybe you stand confused, not knowing what may happen later when he loses his temper, or you do not know what mood he will be in the next minute, and this will often lead to misunderstandings that should be avoided.

You may often be patient with such mood swings and a sharp temper as a partner in a relationship and even try to keep calm and find a solution if possible this is not always easy. Such frequent behaviors are indicators of emotional abuse in a relationship.

What should you do

As soon as your partner shows these traits, you need to set limits; all people may get angry from time to time, and this is normal, but overdoing it can be dangerous, and it should be made a warning sign of what things may turn out to be later in the relationship.

Express your annoyance to your partner, that you will not tolerate such mood swings and violence, and put an end to things from the beginning before they get out of control.

7) Assigning blame:

Sometimes people like to play the blame game, claiming that if you had not put them in such a situation, things would have been different, or that if you had changed your style, he would not have done what he did, such people continue to blame you for their mistakes, and this may destroy your self-esteem.

Please do not accept this behavior, as usual; it is one of the signs of emotional abuse that your partner uses to frustrate you. Such people do not take responsibility for their actions but prefer to blame others.

Which may make you feel worthless or that the fault is in you.

What should you do

Look at this behavior as one of the early signs of an abusive relationship because he will blame you for any mistake in his life later, and if it happens once, it may happen again and again.

The blame game will last a lifetime if you don’t put an end to it from the very beginning.

8) Partner’s past:

How much do you know about your partner’s past? Does he have a history of abusive relationships, or maybe he talks about his past relationships and blames everyone around him for their lack of success?

If your partner has such precedents, you may be the next victim unless these people undergo counseling; it is rare for them to change their life path, so pay attention to the hidden indicators of a controlling partner and the signs of emotional abuse.

What should you do

Do not be fooled by what these people say or their promises to get better because their previous history proves they will not change.

It signals that such a person does not notice his behavior, and he will blame you for what happened to him. Stay away from such a person if you knew about it from the beginning, or try to get out of the relationship if you realize it later.

Conclusion:

There may be more signs and symptoms of emotional abuse. Still, this article offers an excellent idea to help you assess your situation.

You should not take lightly any warning signs that you are in an abusive relationship from the very beginning of its appearance, and do not accept abuse, insult, verbal abuse, or abusive behavior of any kind.

Remember that guilt is not your fault. By knowing these early signs of an emotionally abusive relationship, you can avoid people who may later ruin your life, not feel ashamed of what happened, and ask for help or support instead.

This will boost your self-esteem, make you feel more robust, and protect you from further abusive assaults.

Key message: Never ignore what your intuition and conscious mind dictate about how you feel about your partner, and if you feel scared, dangerous, or suspicious, reconsider the reason why you think this way. If you want to continue in such a relationship, the long-term effects of emotional abuse may negatively affect your self-esteem.

We hope you will take advantage of these warning signs of an emotionally abusive relationship and protect yourself from being hurt.