Emotionally Abusive Relationships

It is interesting to note that emotional abuse is more prevalent and widespread in relationships than physical abuse. However, it is not easy to detect and consequentially, a lot of people continue to suffer from emotional abuse in their relationship without even realizing it. The emotionally abusive partner may seek to manipulate, control and dominate the other, while conveniently passing the blame for any problems or issues in the relationship on the weak and docile partner. Your partner may intend to intimidate, subjugate, demean, punish, or isolate you, which may leave you wondering what is going wrong with the relationship. Since emotional abuse manifests itself in different behavioral patterns, it is rather difficult to give it a proper definition.

 

Any partner who is physically abused also suffers emotional abuse by default. However, majority of people who are subjected to emotional abuse may not be suffering physically at the hands of their partner at all. Even the most loving and caring partners are capable of emotionally abusing their mate due to feelings of possessiveness, jealousy and insecurity. A common aspect that is rather typical to emotionally abusive relationships is that the victimized partner is made to believe that he/she is worthy of nothing. This may have a telling effect on the self-esteem of the suffering partner who may begin to believe that there is something wrong with him/her that is contributing to the decline of the relationship. In simpler terms, any situation that pushes one person to an unhealthy emotional state can fall within the gamut of emotional abuse.