Unmasking Control in Emotionally Abusive Relationships

Key points

Control is the core of emotionally abusive relationships.

Abusers use different methods of control to assert power, maintain dominance, and keep you feeling stuck.

Recognizing these patterns of control is essential for your healing and for reclaiming your freedom.

We tend to associate the word “abuse” with more extreme behaviors and actions. However, abuse occurs on a continuum and can take on different forms and morph and/or escalate over the course of the relationship. Subtle abuse can be difficult to recognize or detect because it often consists of “small” acts of coercion that compound gradually over time. Controlling behaviors, efforts to limit or infringe on your autonomy and privacy, are common in abusive relationships.

Sometimes these controlling behaviors are overt