Long-term Effects Of Emotional Abuse

Long-term effects of emotional abuse

Emotional abuse is when someone does something to hurt you, and when you express your feelings that you’re upset, they turn it around to be something you did to hurt them and they force you to apologize for it, and your feelings, like always, are rendered invalid and silenced, forever damaging the ability to trust others with your feelings because they are always used against you. 

Short-term and long-term effect include:

Distrust in your perceptions

Distrust in people and in future relationships (even involuntarily)

CONSTANT APOLOGIZING

It’s really hard to entrust your feelings to anyone, even when you really try

Can’t start/hold out a conversation

Constant fear of how you are coming across

Always feeling like you’ve done something wrong

Inability to be spontaneous

Internalizing everything

Low self-esteem/self-worth

Still wondering, years later, what you did wrong; how you could have fixed things; what it was they wouldn’t tell you

Tendency to be fearful or on guard

Feeling manipulated

Becoming overly submissive and compliant/dependant

Self-consciousness

Strong fear of losing people

Setup for future unhealthy relationships

Unexpected bursts of anger

Sensitivity to people trying to control you

Needing lots of reassurance and validation

Inability to make decisions or think clearly

Emotional instability

Needing affection 

Break down easily/hard to handle difficult situations

Depression

Anxiety

PTSD

Self-harm

Always giving people another chance even when they continue to hurt you (inability to see the bad in people even when it’s necessary)

Trouble sleeping/sleep disorders

Higher risk for substance abuse

Withdrawal and disinterest (self-isolation)

Feeling trapped

Intense feeling of shame or guilt

Disassociation/depersonalization

Compulsions, obsessions

Putting up with harmful or demeaning treatment

Placing yourself in positions of unnecessary risk

Inability to properly or healthily express emotion

Belittling/not attending to your own struggles

Always feeling like you’re in the wrong

Breaking down over minor disagreements

Social, emotional, or academic delays

Problems with self-image (which can lead to eating disorders)

Not feeling deserving of literally anything (including love, help, attention, support, sustenance, basic human needs)

Feeling annoying all the time, no matter what you do

Feeling guilty for being yourself

Feeling guilty for existing 

@joanfontaine

I’m so fucking stressed my head is going to explode.

re-starting my life starting now, so i can forget about you