Recognizing And Preventing Emotional Manipulation

Emotions make us human. They are wonderful sensations ranging from an abundance of joy to a devastating sadness. We are often more vulnerable when we are in love, and we most often encounter emotional manipulation during relationships .

How can you recognize emotional manipulation?

You will be surprised to know that emotional manipulation is not always easy to spot. How is that possible? Well, because we are talking about the complex and intense dimension of the human psyche, which is also known as love.

For example, many people confuse love with possession. ‘My partner is jealous because he/she loves me’ is without a doubt one of the phrases we hear most often and is a sign of long-term problems.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the subject.

1. To love is not to possess

There are couples who like to do everything together. This is all very positive and even healthy, but not if ‘keeping control’ is the reason for doing everything together.

For example, there are people who can’t stand it when their partner leaves the house alone, has their own friends or even has their own professional or work life.

So we have to be careful. Love is not the same as controlling or forbidding the other person from doing things.

In these cases, you might hear phrases like, “Are you really going out in those clothes?”, “Why are you going out with your boyfriend when you’ve got me?” or ‘If you do that, you really show that you don’t love me. I give you everything and you don’t appreciate it at all.’

2. The need to take care of your own self-confidence

Emotional manipulation attacks our self-confidence directly. In relationships, we give everything to the other person, love him or her more than anything else and would do anything for him or her. This is all very good, but we also need to know how to protect ourselves.

If your partner puts their own needs before yours and shows selfish behavior, you will start to feel the effects and feel a little worse every day.

Most of us see love as an exchange of affection and desire, with a balance between what is given and what is taken. If we feel that we are always the person who gives, we will feel empty and manipulated and our confidence will be too low to find daily joy.

3. Losing your identity bit by bit

Sometimes we fall in love with someone we shouldn’t be in love with. Sometimes it’s love that we have no control over and we fall deeper and deeper into a vortex of intense emotions. This can also lead to emotional manipulation.

There are people who are not mature enough to maintain a healthy relationship and instead of making you happy and growing as a couple, such people break down your identity piece by piece.

They don’t allow you to have friends, put their interests first and neglect yours. Also they belittle you, tell you that you are stupid and do some things wrong. They humiliate you so that you don’t feel at all like the person in the past: happy and full of dreams.

This is how you avoid being emotionally manipulated

To avoid being emotionally manipulated, clearly define your boundaries in a relationship. What is your limit? When you realize you are no longer happy. It’s easy to say this, but many people will not end a relationship even if they are unhappy and know this.

How is that possible? This is actually due to the following reasons:

• Regardless of the fact that they are unhappy, they still love their partner. Breaking up is always complicated and painful.

• Fear of loneliness, and fear of being alone.
• They are afraid. They fear that their partner will handle the ending of the relationship badly.

You have to be consistent and courageous, and you have to ask yourself if you want to spend your whole life with someone who oppresses and manipulates you for his or her own interest, someone who doesn’t respect you. You may not want to end the relationship even though you know it’s toxic.

You also need to carefully weigh the sacrifices and the benefits.

Seek support. Ask your family and friends for help. They can give you strength when you need it. Ending a relationship is never easy and always painful for both parties, but remember that we all have the right to be happy.

You deserve to start each day peacefully and full of dreams. We can guarantee that there is someone in the world who will make you happy and appreciate your worth.