Symptoms Partner Verbal Abuse
The old adage of, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is one of the earliest coping mechanisms that we were taught in dealing with the hateful words of others. Contrary to popular belief, words can hurt--and do hurt--sometimes, even more so than a physical beating. Verbal abuse is still abuse, although many people fail to recognize it as such.
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Name Calling
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Name calling can be done in innocent fun when two people are taking friendly jabs at each other. However, when it escalates to the point of using expletives or derogatory terms relating to one's appearance or weight, the name calling is no longer friendly. If it's not a name he would be calling his mother, brother, sister or grandmother--it's not a name he should be calling you.
Humiliation
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Humiliating someone in front of a group of people, be it family, friends or strangers, is an abusive action. This includes name calling, making fun of, and belittling someone to a degrading degree.
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Criticism
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Constructive criticism can be a good thing, but destructive criticism never is. Constantly complaining about her cooking, appearance, efforts, or anything she shows an interest in can be detrimental to a person's emotional health.
Mincing Words
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Twisting someone's words and using them against him is a tell tale sign of verbal abuse. For example, one partner may express feelings of unhappiness or discontent in general. The abuser could misconstrue those words as being unhappy and discontented with the relationship, making him impossible to please and that the abuser's efforts to do so have been futile. Although this kind of verbal abuse is subtle, it's one of the most sinister. The abuser uses this tactic to progress to the blaming stage.
Blame
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Abusers will often find a way to place blame on their victims in an effort to deflect the attention off of their abusive behavior. Telling a person that his behavior, regardless of how innocent, is the reason that the abuser acts out the way she does can lead to feelings of self-doubt in the victim.
Accusations
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Accusing someone of wrong doing is one of the verbal tactics that abusers will use to instigate a fight. The abuser knows he is unjustly accusing his victim, but can't think of anything else to start a fight to make the victim feel like she caused it.
Yelling
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Shouting, yelling and hollering at someone is always an abusive behavior, but more so when it's done in anger.
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