Influential journalist Walter Winchell said: “Never above you. Never below you. Always beside you”. Although that seems logical, it’s not what happens in every relationship. In fact, in an overly demanding relationship, there is a clear imbalance in the relational…
People don’t talk a lot about violence in young couples. Despite the thousands of studies on violence/physical abuse in married couples, violence hasn’t been studied a lot in young couples. This topic is quite striking since we could possibly avoid…
Lenore Walker’s theory, the cycle of abuse, states that there are four phases in all abusive relationships. This researcher and psychologist has been studying this type of abuse for over forty years. He believes that it’s possible to dismantle violence.…
Nowadays, there’s supposedly sexual freedom and no taboos. And we say “supposedly” because, when it comes down to it, this isn’t really the truth. At least not for an important group of people who don’t enjoy intimacy. Some of them…
Verbal abuse in childhood directly affects children’s health. Nevertheless, we’re not aware of all of its effects. This is because we sometimes confuse it with the use of bad words. But it goes much further than that. Verbal abuse in…
The causes of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) have to do with deficiencies and excesses during childhood. The child can experience a lack of the different stimuli or the love that he so needed. Or, on other occasions, narcissism starts to…
Assertive indifference is a new expression that was first used in the field of relationships. However, little by little, the concept has started to be used in other fields, and has proved to be a useful way of managing different…
Recovering from emotional abuse means having to process a traumatic event that has undermined your confidence. To do this, you have to avoid blaming yourself. The person who trusts and gives everything to their relationship is never in the wrong. The…
Attachment is the affective bond that develops primarily out of a search for safety and well-being. In some cases, the primary caregiver represents both a source of danger and protection for the child. This is how disorganized attachment develops. For…
In 2002, Lundy Bancroft wrote one of the most profound books ever written about the mentality of psychological and emotional abusers. His work was backed by clinical evidence and research. In the book, he defines different types of emotionally violent people.
It is increasingly common for feminism to feature in the media these days. It is also becoming more common to specifically include social groups that, until not so long ago, had been marginalized. Orange is The New Black is one…
Considerable effort has been made to come up with the psychological profile of an abuser. But research still hasn’t produced reliable empirical data. That said, evidence does exist that there are traits common in all abusers. Traditionally, boys and girls…
A few years ago, I had the chance to live with people who were a lot younger than me. If I hadn’t made the decision to go back to school, I might have never met them. Their ages were somewhere…
The different forms of child abuse seem almost imperceptible sometimes. They have even been accepted as a natural part of a little one’s education on occasions. Some have seen it as necessary and have found it impossible to use other…
Have you heard the term gaslighting? Well, we’ll use an example to explain to you what it is. You’ve probably found yourself in a situation where someone assures you that you said something. Yet, you don’t remember having said it.…
There are articles you’d rather not have to write because words hurt more than we’d like to believe. But ever since my son lost his smile because of the nightmare that is child abuse, I think how much I wish I’d…
People who lived through the 80’s might remember this incredible case that reverberated around the whole world. Known as “the psychopath little girl,” young Beth Thomas terrorized her entire family. However, it started with a terrible trigger. Even today it…
Learned helplessness is one of the worst holes we could ever fall into. It is the perfect breeding ground for anxiety and depression. And actually, it is both a consequence and a cause of lacking assertiveness (“Why cause conflict by expressing…
A lot of times it’s hard to recognize sexism. It’s often camouflaged in behavior that seems harmless. Culture itself feeds it and gives it to us in small daily doses. But these small doses add up and create a whole…
Anyone who psychologically abuses their partner, anyone who is taking advantage of, looking down on, humiliating, and destroying them and their self-esteem is committing indirect abuse. Indirect, but still awful for their children. Because constantly witnessing a toxic relationship makes these…
