6 Signs Of Mental Abuse - What Are Emotional Abuse Signs? | BetterHelp

[Music] hi there today we're gonna talk about a pretty serious topic that's close to my heart because I've worked with a number of people who struggled with mental or emotional abuse or who've experienced dealing with a family member who's in an abusive situation and so I want to talk to you a little bit about six signs that you or someone you know and love might be in a mentally or emotionally abusive relationship my name is dr. Sonya and I'm a licensed clinical psychologist with over 10 years of experience many of those years have involved working with people who have found themselves in a situation where their partner is mentally and emotionally abusive and so I think it's really important to understand some of the common signs of this so you can really be prepared to get help to get yourself out of a situation that might be very unhealthy for you so one of the first signs of mental or emotional abuse or being in this type of relationship is that you find that your partner is constantly criticizing or belittling you and this criticism can be about small things or big things but the most important thing to understand is that it seems really unrelenting so you're left with the feeling that you can't do anything right it might be about the way you dress it might be about what you cook it might be about how you speak the most important thing to understand is that it can be little things or big things but it happens repeatedly a second sign that you might be in a mentally or emotionally abusive relationship is that your partner tries to isolate you from your family or your friends they might do this subtly through putting down people that you were close to or they might do this by actively trying to keep you from the people that you were close to you before and they may use methods such as you know I want to spend more time with you you're not spending enough time me so it makes it like a level of guilt that they're using or it might be I don't like this person that you're hanging out with they're a bad influence on you or I don't like the way you act around them but overall the goal of the abuser is to isolate you from people who could be a resource to help you to see that the situation you're in is not healthy for you another common thing that somebody who is emotionally or mentally abusive will do is something called stonewalling and essentially what this is is giving you the silent treatment they may do this at the smallest perceive slight and it can last for anywhere from hours up to days and typically it will only stop if you give in or comply with whatever they're demanding at the time so one of the other common things that can happen in a relationship that is abusive is a person will either make jokes or tease you or use sarcasm in a cruel way and then when you get upset or you express any level of anger or frustration or sadness they'll accuse you of being too sensitive or they will say that they didn't mean it that way and that you misunderstood them they may even do this in front of friends and family and it it doesn't feel good and it will wear you down over time if you're in this type of relationship have you or anyone you know ever been with somebody who rapidly shift be it's shifted between being loving and affectionate and then being angry and demanding this is a typical tactic that people who are mentally and emotionally abusive will use and it's designed specifically to make the people that they're targeting feel off balance and unprepared to make any strong moves or set any clear boundaries around the relationship so if you ever been with somebody who is excessively jealous and is often accusing you of either cheating or you're having innocent conversation and they assume that something more is going on this can be a really typical sign of abusive behavior so if any of these signs are symptoms that we talked about resonated with you or struck a card with you in any way I really encourage you to reach out to talk to a licensed professional about what's going on either through online or offline counseling there are people that can help you determine whether your relationship is truly abusive and unhealthy and also help you to either set appropriate boundaries or take the steps that you need to take in order to leave the situation that you're in if you like this video please feel free to subscribe to our YouTube channel where you'll find a lot more content on a variety of mental health topics and if you're interested in learning more about online counseling please click the link to better help comm below [Music] [Music]

Channel: BetterHelp

Views: 182,744

Keywords: emotional abuse, mental abuse, signs of mental abuse, what is emotional abuse, psychological abuse, emotional abuse video, psychological maltreatment

Id: wsGIFOVHTI4

Length: 5min 38sec (338 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 19 2018