|
|||||
|
A guide to realizing if your child is at-risk, displaying self-destructive behaviors, and needs your help and intervention.
in our family?
|
ABUSE: Emotional
Abuse - Neglect - Physical Abuse - Sexual Abuse Teen Dating Violence - Abuse Help & Support - Emotional Health
Emotional abuse (psychological abuse, verbal abuse, mental injury) includes acts or omissions that have caused, or could cause, serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders. In some cases of emotional abuse, the acts of parents or other caregivers alone, without any harm evident in the child’s behavior or condition, are sufficient to warrant child protective services (CPS) intervention. For example, the parents/caregivers may use extreme or bizarre forms of punishment, such as confinement of a child in a dark closet. This is usually done in the name of "discipline."
Examples of emotional abuse include:
Belittling - Disparaging comments;
making what one said as unimportant or contemptibly small
Teasing - Harassing someone
'playfully' and often with sexual connotations, or harassing
maliciously (especially by ridicule); provoking someone with
persistent annoyances NOTE:
If teasing is reciprocal, it can be considered a playful bonding
interaction and is not
abusive. If one or both persons are already in a
relationship with another, then this type of teasing is flirting and is emotionally abusive in
its betrayal. Some emotional abuse, such as habitual scape-goating, belittling, or rejecting treatment, is often difficult to prove and, therefore, child protective services may not be able to intervene without evidence of harm to the child.
Andrew Vachss, an attorney who represents children and youth exclusively, with 30 years experience in child protective work, says that emotional abuse of children can lead in adulthood to: Read Andrew Vachss' excellent article, You Carry The Cure In Your Own Heart.
No abuse - neglect, physical, sexual - can occur without psychological consequences. Therefore all abuse contains elements of emotional abuse.
Next: Teen Dating Violence
|
More Information on Emotional Abuse
Ambient Abuse and Gaslighting ~ Ambient abuse is the fostering, propagation, and enhancement of an atmosphere of fear, intimidation, instability, unpredictability and irritation. It is the outcome of fear – fear of violence, fear of the unknown, fear of the unpredictable, the capricious, and the arbitrary. It is perpetrated by dropping subtle hints, by disorienting, by constant and unnecessary lying, by persisting doubting and demeaning.
Catch It Low to Prevent It High: Countering Low-Level Verbal Abuse ~ This article looks at three types of verbal abuse -- teasing, cursing, and gossip.
Emotional Abuse in Youth Sports (pdf) ~ Emotional abuse in youth sports can come from a parent or guardian, coach, teacher, sibling, or a friend. It is the most common form of maltreatment in youth sports, and includes verbal abuse, forcing a child to participate in sports, punishing a child for not playing well or losing, and making a child believe that his or her self-worth relies on winning.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome Linked With Emotional Abuse ~ There is an association between women's experience of emotional abuse and the digestive disorder known as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Two psycho-social factors may also play a role: self-silencing and self-blame.
The Psychological Maltreatment of Children ~ One survey cited in this report revealed that 10% to 20% of toddlers and 50% of teenagers experience severe aggression (e.g., cursing, threatening to send the child away, calling the child 'dumb' or such other belittling names). This report affirms that psychological scars can last a lifetime.
Sticks, Stones, and Hurtful Words: Relative Effects of Various Forms of Childhood Maltreatment ~ This study was designed to delineate the impact of parental verbal aggression, witnessing domestic violence, physical abuse, and sexual abuse, by themselves and in combination, on psychiatric symptoms. Childhood verbal abuse had a relatively weak association with current anxiety, but it had moderate to strong links with current depression, anger-hostility, and dissociative symptoms. These links were stronger than those for being a victim of physical abuse during childhood and comparable to those for witnessing domestic violence during childhood and for being sexually abused by a nonfamily member during childhood.
Teasing: A Real Problem and Solutions ~ Even though teasing is considered a type of bullying, teasing can range from an enjoyable to a hurtful interaction. Psychologists define teasing as an ambiguous message containing both humor and hostility.
Verbal Abuse ~ Proverbs 23:7 says, "For as he thinks within himself, so he is." What a person thinks in his mind and heart will be reflected in his words and actions. Verbal abuse and physical abuse result from a world view that is clearly not biblical or loving.
Verbal, Religion and Truth ~ The religious person seeks truth. The verbally abusive person denies truth. In some way, all verbal abuse is a lie.
You Are Not the Cause of Your Husband's Anger or Abuse ~ Angry and controlling husbands are very anxious by temperament. From the time they were young children, they've had a more or less constant sense of dread that things will go badly and they will fail to cope. So they try to control their environment to avoid that terrible feeling of failure and inadequacy.
You Are Not Crazy ~ Listen to what verbal abuse sounds like on this interactive site.
|
|||
|
Healing the Hardware of the Soul by Daniel Amen Guided by this book, each of us can learn to balance and optimize the parts of the brain responsible for inner growth, intimacy, and spiritual health.
|
|||||
How can I deal with the
