Hey Psych2goers!
Welcome back to another video!
This video is inspired by “Mo Re”’s comment!
So here it is!
Have you experienced emotional manipulation or would like to protect yourself from it?
Well, everyone can be emotionally manipulative towards others, even if they don’t intend
to be.
However, true manipulators perform each action deliberately and do so on a constant basis.
Manipulation is when an individual controls another person’s emotions, behavior, and
thought processes in order to satisfy a personal need.
If you feel like someone is actively exploiting you or influencing you in a harmful way, here
are seven examples of emotional manipulation to be aware of.
One: Guilt-tripping
Has someone ever tried to make you feel like the guilty one during an argument?
“I never thought you would do this,” “I’ve always trusted you,” “You want ME to pay
for this meal?”
Emotional manipulators use guilt trips to voice their thoughts in a passive-aggressive
way.
They do so in order to avoid direct confrontation, which can be awkward and uncomfortable.
If your actions don’t align with their goals, they may try to make you feel guilty.
In response, you may start to overthink their statements and eventually blame yourself for
everything.
Two: Taking advantage of your insecurities
Have you ever seen beauty advertisements that display a model’s flawless skin, with words
like “eternal youth” or “smooth as butter” underneath the image?
Although advertisements nowadays promote inclusivity and try to embrace flaws, it’s not uncommon
for companies to indirectly utilize people’s insecurities to promote their products.
The same goes for interpersonal relationships.
People may refer to others’ body image, appearance, or habits, hoping that the other
person will improve themselves.
However, someone may do this with malicious intent to make you feel bad about yourself
so that they can gain more confidence.
Three: Always changing the criteria
Someone might constantly shift the criteria of what they want in order to manipulate the
other person.
For example, your friend may be upset about your behavior and asks you to be more caring
of others.
Once you observe your mistakes and make efforts to fix them, your friend still remains unhappy
about the way you speak and asks you to change that as well.
In essence, you may never achieve their desired requests.
In this case, remember to just strive to do your best to put effort into your friendship
without letting them walk all over you and your boundaries.
Four: Twisting reality
When conversing with someone else, you may have exaggerated or emphasized certain facts
over others, which is completely normal.
What emotional manipulators do, however, is completely twist facts in order to confuse
you, gain sympathy, or achieve other goals.
Many times, they do so to make themselves seem vulnerable.
For instance, they may rant over how someone “mistreated” them when in reality there
was only a simple miscommunication.
Although it’s hard to detect when they are lying, try to observe their body language
and tone when they recite these so-called “facts.”
Five: Diminishing your issues
Everyone’s experiences in life are different, and so are the problems that each person encounters.
When someone tries to invalidate your experience by saying things like “you think that’s
a problem?
Well how about my time with this …” or “be grateful for your issues; they are nothing
compared to mine,” take note of what their intentions are.
They might be influencing your emotions, making you feel bad for sharing your problems when
in reality, everyone’s experience should be respected.
Six: Gaslighting
This is a type of emotional abuse whereby a person tries to make another doubt their
perception of reality.
This person might make the victim question if their memories were accurate or even if
their train of thought was valid.
For example, when you recite an emotional story about how your beloved pet passed away,
an acquaintance might interrupt and tell you that the event is small and you shouldn’t
feel as sad as you are.
The truth is, only you know what you are experiencing and your emotions are all valid.
Seven: Overly complimenting
On the other end of the spectrum, some people will try to sugarcoat everything they say.
Sweet talkers will try to influence you by excessively praising and complimenting what
you do, say, or even think.
Initially, you may feel flattered, and it’s fine to enjoy those initial boosts of happiness.
However, you may want to watch out if this person praises you too much.
In a way, you may subconsciously lower your self-defense and blindly trust this person
who could try to emotionally manipulate you later down the road.
So, have you experienced any of these examples?
Manipulators can make you second guess yourself and make you feel like your emotions aren’t
valid or real.
However, after this video, hopefully, you will have a better understanding of the intentions
behind those people and can better protect yourself from them.
Of course, not everyone has the intention of controlling your emotions.
It’s a matter of how often they do it and if those actions are done deliberately.
If you or anyone you know has experienced emotional manipulation for a long time, please
do not hesitate to seek help from a licensed professional.
Remember that this video is meant to be educational and is not intended to diagnose or treat any
condition or situation.
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Tell us in the comments below.
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All the references used are added in the description box below.
Thank you for watching.
See you next time!
Thanks for watching!
Video by Psych2go.