Emotional Abuse Quotes

• With emotional abuse, the insults, insinuations, criticism, and accusations slowly eat away at the victim’s self-esteem until he or she is incapable of judging a situation realistically. He or she may begin to believe that there is something wrong with them or even fear they are losing their mind. They have become so beaten down emotionally that they blame themselves for the abuse.

  Beverly Engel

  Self Esteem, Believe, Emotional

  41 Copy quote

• Family is supposed to be our safe haven. Very often, it's the place where we find the deepest heartache.

  Iyanla Vanzant

  Safe Haven, Family Love, Heartache

  31 Copy quote

• There are many types of emotional abuse but most is done in an attempt to control or subjugate another person. Emotional abuse is like brainwashing in that it systematically wears away at the victim's self-confidence, sense of self, trust in her perceptions and self-concept.

  Beverly Engel

  Self Confidence, Emotional, Abuse

  "Emotionally Abused Women". Online Chat, www.healthyplace.com.

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• The scars from mental cruelty can be as deep and long-lasting as wounds from punches or slaps but are often not as
  obvious. In fact, even among women who have experienced violence from a partner, half or more report that the man's emotional abuse is what is causing them the greatest harm.

  Lundy Bancroft

  Men, Emotional, Long

  Lundy Bancroft (2003). “Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men”, p.32, Penguin

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• People say you need to be strong, smart, and lucky to survive hard times, war, a natural disaster, or physical torture. But I say emotional abuse—anxiety, fear, guilt, and degradation—is far worse and much harder to survive.

  Lisa See

  Strong, War, Smart

  Lisa See (2010). “Shanghai Girls”, p.35, A&C Black

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• Emotional abuse is any type of abuse that is not physical in nature. It can include everything from verbal abuse to the silent treatment, domination to subtle manipulation.

  Beverly Engel

  Emotional, Abuse, Domestic Violence

  "Emotionally Abused Women". Interview with David Roberts, www.healthyplace.com.

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• Screaming at children over their grades, especially to the point of the child's tears, is child abuse, pure and simple. It's not funny and it's not good parenting. It is a crushing, scarring, disastrous experience for the child. It isn't the least bit funny.

  Ben Stein

  Crush, Children, Parenting

  22 Copy quote

• Emotional abuse is like being continuously kicked in the shins. It can be worse than getting one punch in the face, and it cements itself.

  Ashley Banjo

  Emotional, Abuse, Domestic Violence

  22 Copy quote

• You survived the abuse, you’re going to survive the recovery.

  Mariska Hargitay

  Recovery, Abuse, Survived

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• It is impossible to correct abuses unless we know that theyre going on.

  Julian Assange

  Abuse, Domestic Violence, Wikileaks

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• The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

  Edmund Burke

  Bullying, Freedom, Work

  Speech on the Middlesex Election, 7 February 1771, in 'The Speeches' (1854)

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• Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.

  Tacitus

  Abuse, Criticism, Irritated

  35 Copy quote

• I think we start suffering as soon as we come out of the womb. I think that people tend to stereotype. When they think of suffering, they think of abuse - physical abuse, emotional abuse, poverty, that kind of thing. There's different levels of suffering. I don't think that it has to do with how much money you have - if you were raised in the ghetto or the Hamptons. For me it's more about perception: self-perception and how you perceive the world.

  Lucinda Williams

  Ghetto, Emotional, Thinking

  "An Interview with Lucinda Williams". The Believer Magazine, Issue Ninety-One, believermag.com. July 1, 2012.

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• The results of any traumatic experience, such as abuse, can only be resolved by experiencing, articulating, and judging every facet of the original experience within a process of careful therapeutic disclosure.

  Alice Miller

  Judging, Abuse, Process

  Alice Miller (1991). “Breaking down the wall of silence: the liberating experience of facing painful truth”, Penguin Press HC, The

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• The Scriptures have been misused to defend bloody crusades and inquisitions; to support slavery, apartheid, and segregation; to sanction the physical and emotional abuse of women and children; to persecute Jews and other non-Christian people of faith; to support the holocaust of Hitler's Third Reich; to oppose medical science; to condemn inter-racial marriage; to execute women as witches; to excuse the violent racism of the Ku Klux Klan; to mobilize militias, white supremacy and neo-nazi movements; and to condone intolerance and discrimination against sexual minorities.

  Mel White

  Christian, Children, Gay

  20 Copy quote