3 Common Symptoms of Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse is not easy to identify. It is methodical tearing down of a person due to power and control exerted upon him/her over a long period of time. When one person tries to exert absolute control over other then it results in emotional abuse. We must at first analyze in brief as to what are the symptoms of emotional abuse before finding ways to deal with it.
Identifying emotional abuse:
It is hard to detect, understand and connect with the symptoms of emotional abuse, since unlike physical abuse, it leaves no visible scars. Behavioral patterns such as, refusing to recognize a person’s value and presence, ridiculing them often, swearing and abusing, name calling, instilling a sense of low esteem, yelling, terrorizing, isolating an individual’s freedom etc are probable causes that lead to emotional abuse. Listed here are a few common symptoms of emotional abuse.
1. Depression
Emotional abuse tends to generate anger in the victim, which when not vented out and suppressed, takes mild to chronic form of depression. Due to this, the victim further suffers from desolation, focus issues, hopelessness, disturbance in sleep and lack of appetite. It also leads to withdrawal from the society and severe anxiety. Emotional instability and aggression are few other symptoms in an emotionally abused victim.
2. Nervousness
Another visible symptom of emotional abuse is the feeling of nervousness seen in the abused person. Observe the person whom you think is a victim of abuse. The person being abused almost never smiles, and is constantly nervous. There is always an expression of worry and guilt on the person’s face. Due to this feeling of induced guilt, the person being abused does not make eye contact while interacting with others. This too is a common symptom of emotional abuse.
3. Scared to be independent
The person, who is being emotionally abused, completely loses self-confidence. The person gets scared of even simple situations in life. The person refuses to be independent, and completely becomes either dependent on others or is unable to trust anyone even for simpler issues.
Emotional abuse kills silently. Looking out for these common symptoms can help in rescuing an emotionally abused friend or relative, when you are well versed with the symptoms of emotional abuse.
