What Is Emotional Abuse?

Emotional abuse involves repeated behaviors that harm a person’s sense of safety, worth, confidence, or emotional stability. It can include:

• insults
• humiliation
• criticism
• shaming
• threats
• intimidation
• manipulation
• gaslighting
• constant blame

Emotional abuse may also involve ignoring your feelings, dismissing your needs, punishing you for having emotions, or making you feel like you are “too much.”
Emotional abuse can also include:

• controlling behavior
• unpredictable anger
• the “silent treatment”
• being made responsible for another person’s emotions

This page is part of the What Counts as Abuse? section of the CommuniDID site, which helps readers evaluate past experiences and understand why confusion about abuse is common.

Explore more:

• Questions about What Counts as Abuse

 

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