By Jordan Farhang
Staff; Writer
Emotional abuse is a way to control another person by using emotions to criticize, embarrass, blame, or manipulate someone who views you as an important person in their life. Generally, a relationship is emotionally abusive when there is a constant pattern of abusive words and bullying behaviors that wear down a person’s self-esteem and undermine their mental health. Emotional abuse is one of the hardest forms of abuse to recognize. It can be subtle or manipulative. Either way, it chips away at the victim’s self-esteem and they begin to doubt their perceptions of reality. While this is most common in dating and/or marriages, it can happen between family members and friends as well. The victim feels trapped and unable (or unwilling) to seek help and stays stuck in that cycle of hate and resentment. But that is not always the case as there are those who are able to get out of the abuse or there are others who are able to offer help if they see this happening. The next time you are with someone close, try to examine their relationships with other people and your own, you just might be able to help them out.