$ The Causes Of Emotional Abuse And How To Escape From It

What Drives Emotional Abuse in Relationships

What Emotional Abuse in Relationships 1

Verbal abuse, passive aggression, gaslighting, and social withdrawal are all forms of emotional abuse. Here are the causes of emotional abuse in a relationship, as well as how to recover from it.

Anger and abuse in relationships begin with blame: โ€œI feel bad, and itโ€™s your fault.โ€

Even when they recognize the wrongness of their behavior, resentful, angry, or emotionally abusive people are likely to blame it on their partners: โ€œYou push my buttons,โ€ or, โ€œI might have overreacted, but Iโ€™m human, and look what you did!โ€ Angry and abusive people feel likeย victims, which justifies in their mindsย victimizing others.

The Causes Of Emotional Abuse And How Recover From It

Angry and abusive partners tend to be anxious by temperament. From the time they were children, theyโ€™ve had a sense of dread that things will go badly and that they will fail to cope. They try to control their environment to avoid feelings of failure and inadequacy. The strategy of trying to control others fails to satisfy them for the simple reason that the primary cause of their anxiety is within them. It springs from one of two sourcesโ€”a heavy dread of failure, or fear of harm, isolation, and deprivation.

The Silent Abuser

The Causes Of Emotional Abuse And How To Escape From It

Not all emotional abuse involves shouting or criticism. More common forms are โ€œdisengagingโ€ (a distracted or preoccupied partner) or โ€œstonewallingโ€ (a partner who refuses to accept anyone elseโ€™s perspective).

Partners who stonewall may not overtly put anyoneย down. Nevertheless, they punishย byย refusing even to think about their partnersโ€™ perspectives. If they listen at all, they doย so dismissively or impatiently.

Disengaging partners say, โ€œDo whatever you want, just leave me alone.โ€ Theyโ€™re often workaholics, couch potatoes, flirts, or obsessive about something. They try to deal with their sense of inadequacy about relationships by simply not tryingโ€”since no attempt means no failure.

Both stonewalling and disengaging tactics can make you feel:

  • Unseen and unheard;
  • Unattractive;
  • Like you donโ€™t count;
  • Like a single parent.
causes of emotional abuse

Harmful Adaptations to Anger and Abuse: Walking on Eggshells

The most insidious aspect of living with an angry or abusive partnerย is not the obviousโ€”nervous reactions to shouting, name-calling, criticism or other demeaning behavior. Itโ€™s the adaptations you make to try to prevent those episodes. You walk on eggshells to keep the peace, or a semblance of connection.

Women can be especially vulnerable to the negative effects of walking on eggshells due to their greater tendency to be vulnerable to anxiety. Many may engage in constant self-editing and self-criticism to keep from โ€œpushing his buttons.โ€ Emotionally abused women may second-guess themselves so much that they feel as though they have lost themselves in a hole. Emotionally abused men tend to isolate more and more, losing themselves in work or hobbiesโ€”anything but family interactions.

No One Escapes the Effects of Emotional Abuse In Relationships

Everyone in a walking-on-eggshells family loses some degree of dignity and autonomy. We know that no less than half the members of such families, including children, will suffer from clinical anxiety and/or depression. (โ€œClinicalโ€ meaning that the symptoms interfere with normal functioning.

They canโ€™t sleep, canโ€™t concentrate, canโ€™t work as efficiently, and canโ€™t enjoy themselves without drinking.) Most of the adults lack genuine self-esteem(based on realistic self-appraisals), and the children rarely feel as good about themselves as other kids.

When it comes to more severe forms of destructiveness, purely emotional abuse is usually more psychologically harmful than physical abuse. There are a couple of reasons for this: Even in the most violent families, incidents tend to be cyclical.

Early in the abuse cycle, a violent outburst may be followed by a โ€œhoneymoon periodโ€ of remorse, attention, affection, and generosityโ€”but not genuine compassion. (The honeymoon stage eventually ends, as the victim begins to say, โ€œNever mind the flowers, just stop hitting me!โ€) Emotional abuse, on the other hand, tends to happen every dayโ€”the effects are more harmful because theyโ€™re more frequent.

The other factor that makes emotional abuse so devastating is the greater likelihood that victims will blame themselves. When someone hits you, itโ€™s easy to see that he or she is the problem. But when the abuse is subtleโ€”saying or implying that youโ€™re ugly, a bad parent, stupid, incompetent, not worth attention, or that no one could love youโ€”you are more likely to think itโ€™s your problem.

Important questions to ask of yourself:

  • Do I like myself?
  • Am I able to realize my potential?
  • Does everyone I care about feel safe?
  • Do my children like themselves?
  • Are they able to realize their fullest potential?
  • Do they feel safe?

Recovery from walking on eggshells requires removing focus from the repair of your relationship, or your partner, and placing it squarely on your personal healing. The good news is that the most powerful form of healing comes from within you.

You can draw on your inner resources by reintegrating your deepest values into your everyday sense of self. This will make you feel more valuable, confident, and powerful, regardless of what your partner does. And it will give you the strength to seek a relationship in which you are valued and respected.


Written by Steven Stosny, Ph.D
This article has been republished from the blogย Anger in the Age of Entitlementย in Psychology today
What Drives Emotional Abuse and How to Begin to Recover
What Drives Emotional Abuse and How to Begin to Recover
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