Emotional abuse can be a form of psychological trauma that can have a similar impact on the nervous system as physical trauma.
Experiencing abuse or other trauma puts people at risk of developing mental health conditions, such as: Anxiety disorders. Depression. Post-traumatic stress disorder.
Emotional abuse is a type of trauma that can lead to significant consequences. PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that affects your thoughts, memory, emotions, and thinking. It can have you in a constant state of fear and alertness, which causes your body to produce large amounts of stress hormones.
Types of emotional abuse
Emotional abuse can involve any of the following: Verbal abuse: yelling at you, insulting you or swearing at you. Rejection: constantly rejecting your thoughts, ideas and opinions. Gaslighting: making you doubt your own feelings and thoughts, and even your sanity, by manipulating the truth.
Long-term emotional abuse can also result in several health problems, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, chronic pain, and more.
It is a covert type of emotional abuse in which the bully or abuser misleads the target, creating a false narrative and making them question their judgments and reality.1 Ultimately, the victim of gaslighting starts to feel unsure about their perceptions of the world and even wonder if they are losing their sanity.
After trauma though, this rationality might be overridden and your prefrontal cortex will have a hard time regulating fear and other emotions. So, these three parts of the brain- the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex- are the most-affected areas of the brain from emotional trauma.
PTSD is a reaction to psychological trauma which develops in response to actual or threatened extreme danger or personal injury. PTSD can originate from a variety of forms of abuse, ranging from physical abuse to sexual abuse to emotional abuse.
Common Signs of PTSD from Emotional Abuse
Developing an eating disorder (ED) Impulsive behavior. Reliving past traumas. Having nightmares or flashbacks.
The experience of put downs, criticisms or whatever form emotional abuse takes, not only wears down self-esteem but also impacts the nervous system. Memories of the abuse can elicit negative feelings, tense physical sensations along with negative thoughts about yourself long after the abuse has occurred.
Intrusive memories
Recurrent, unwanted distressing memories of the traumatic event. Reliving the traumatic event as if it were happening again (flashbacks) Upsetting dreams or nightmares about the traumatic event. Severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of the traumatic event.
Staying in an emotionally or verbally abusive relationship can have long-lasting effects on your physical and mental health, including leading to chronic pain, depression, or anxiety. Read more about the effects on your health. You may also: Question your memory of events: “Did that really happen?” (See Gaslighting.)
Verbal abuse is the most common form of emotional abuse, but it's often unrecognized, because it may be subtle and insidious. It may be said in a loving, quiet voice, or be indirect—or even concealed as a joke.
Narcissistic abuse is a form of emotional abuse perpetrated by someone who suffers from narcissism or sociopathy. These individuals have a tendency – whether conscious or unconscious – to use words and language in manipulative ways to damage, alter, or otherwise control their partner's behaviour.
Emotional abuse involves nonphysical behavior that belittles another person and can include insults, put down, verbal threats or other tactics that make the victim feel threatened, inferior, ashamed or degraded.
The cycle of abuse is made up of four stages. These stages include the building of tension, the abuse incident, the reconciliation, and a period of calm.
Emotional abuse in an intimate relationship can cause profound psychological damage that persists long after the relationship has ended. In some cases, emotional abuse can even cause nervous breakdown. In these cases, residential mental health treatment may be necessary to find resolution and recovery.
Ages 5 through 8 identified as crucial period in brain development and exposure to stress.
Trauma bonds are bonds that commonly form as a result of abusive relationships. They are the surface-level feelings of attachment and intimacy that can result from an abusive cycle. In a trauma bond, partners think they have true love or connection even though the relationship is harmful.
Trauma often manifests physically as well as emotionally. Some common physical signs of trauma include paleness, lethargy, fatigue, poor concentration and a racing heartbeat. The victim may have anxiety or panic attacks and be unable to cope in certain circumstances.