Emotional Abuse - The signs and how to recognise it.

Emotional abuse is any act where your partner controls, bullies or humiliates you.

It can include intimidation and threats, undermining, criticism, being made to feel guilty, telling you what you can and can’t do and controlling a person’s finances.

People sometimes struggle to recognise emotional abuse but a key thing to consider is how it makes you feel. If your partner consistently makes you feel controlled, like you can’t speak your mind, or like you have to change your actions to accommodate their behaviour, these are all red flags.

Emotional abuse and other forms of domestic abuse are often only discussed in the context of romantic relationships, but emotional abuse can happen in any relationship you have with another person.

If you’re being abused or think you may be being abused but aren’t sure, an important first step is to speak to somebody outside of the relationship who you trust, this could be a friend, a counsellor or a specialist agency that supports victims. Getting an outside perspective can help you to identify the abuse and access support.