How Verbal Abuse Might Be Linked To Lasting Mental Health Issues

Sep 26, 2018

The impact of verbal abuse can be as bad as, or even worse than, the effects of other forms of abuse, including physical and sexual. This finding demonstrates that verbal abuse can actually cause long-term psychological damage, causing anxiety and other mental disorders.

What Is Verbal Abuse and What Makes It So Bad?

According to an article written by Berit Brogaard D.M.Sci., Ph.D. for Psychology today, verbal abuse is not a one-time thing where someone yells at another person. The abuse happens repeatedly or in a sudden, unexpected manner. The language used is focused on undermining a person's dignity and security.

Victims of verbal abuse often do not respond, even when their dignity is under attack. This passive response is often due to the long-term effects of this type of abuse. It can do massive psychological damage that can remain hidden from an exterior viewpoint, while profoundly impacting the victim.

Abusing a person verbally is the same thing as abusing them emotionally. The goal of verbal abuse is to get to a person's emotions. Over time, this kind of abuse causes profound damage to a person's confidence and self-esteem.

What Are the Effects of Verbal Abuse

Verbal abuse can have both short and long-term effects. According to research conducted at Walden University in 2018, people who had experienced verbal abuse during childhood were up to 9 times more likely to have personality disorders later in life than those who did not. 

In the short-term, the victim can start overthinking things and have difficulty making decisions. He or she can also suffer from a lack of enthusiasm and low self-esteem. In the long-term, the effects are more profound. Psychological disorders are quite common.

Anxiety is a common effect of verbal abuse. The high-stress levels and trauma affect a person's ability to deal with everyday stress, leading to ongoing worry and anxiety.

Depression often accompanies anxiety in verbal abuse victims. This goes along with the lower self-esteem problems the person deals within the short-term.

It is worth mentioning that according to a study on Verbal Abuse amongst employees of the National Health Service (UK), they found that "Verbally abusive calls were associated with staff having poorer mental health and the desire to leave.". 

What Are the Signs of Verbal Abuse?

• Here are a few of the common signs someone is dealing with verbal abuse:
• The abuser uses name calling to manipulate their victim.
• The abuser blames the victim for everything that goes wrong, whether that person is involved or not.
• The abuser attacks anything that gives the victim pleasure like hobbies or friendships.
• The abuser shows no appreciation for the victim's accomplishments and hard work.
• The abuser is always right.
• The abuser escalates the abuse if the victim starts to feel good.
• The victim starts to isolate himself or herself from friends and family due to low self-esteem.

There could be someone from your loved ones or friends who might be in an emotionally unsafe situation and yet aren't aware of it. You could prevent the grave effects of it by spreading this article.

Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation with your doctor. Your health is important to us!