How to Recognize an Emotionally Abusive Relationship

Video Transcript

"If it looks like a duck, and it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. How do you recognize an emotionally abusive relationship? Hello. This is Dr. Paul, author of "Boomer Girls," a boomer woman's guide to men and dating. Now this goes both ways for men and women. As a relationship consultant I hear often times women and men talk about emotionally unacceptable relationships because they're abusive. Name calling works, belittling works, I mean it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on. Why are people doing this? Well we often say we criticize others what we fear most in ourselves. But an abusive relationship, emotionally abusive, is different from that because what that person is trying to do is to reduce your sense of worth down to a level where they can control you. It's again a subterfuge that does not set well. Your self image, your self esteem is being challenged and undermined. That's not going to stop. It goes on, and on, and on, until you actually can develop a mental illness as a result of that. There's some very good examples in film and in books that show, there's a "Street Car Named Desire" was an excellent and one that if you ever had the opportunity to see or enjoy as a play you might want to do that, because as a classic case of someone emotionally abusing someone else. Typically in this case it was a man emotionally abusing a woman, but it does go both ways. Don't allow someone to rob you of your self worth. That's what it's all about. Don't allow that to happen, they have no right to do that. You are a worthwhile human being, too. This is Dr. Paul. May your fantasies of today be your realities of tomorrow."