Red Pill, Blue Pill

Before you diagnose yourself with a mental illness make sure you are not in fact surrounded by assholes...

Categories of Verbal Abuse 

1. Withholding (information, money, resources, time, communication)

2. Countering (the argument saying your thinking is wrong I am right therefore I can think for both of us)

3. Discounting (saying your perception is worthless and your witness has no real value)

4. Verbal abuse disguised as a joke. (making light of abuse)

5. Blocking and Diverting (you are not a rational person and I can change the conversation at will therefore not being held accountable)

6. Accusing and Blaming (blaming the victim's behavior for the abuse)

7. Judging and Criticizing (saying you have wrong thinking and your reactions are wrong)

8. Trivializing (pretending actions are less than they are and that your perceptions, opinions, and concerns are less than they really are)

9. Undermining (constant put downs lead to erosion of confidence and lessens determination)

10. Threatening (physical harm)

11. Name Calling (saying you are any thing less than human)

12. Forgetting (abuser forgets agreements or incidents saying the time, energy, and reality does not have to be accounted for)

13. Ordering and Demanding (asserting power with intimidation)

14. Denial (abuser refuses to accountable by failing to accept reality)

15. Abusive Anger (abuser threatening to have their way by intimidation)

Verbal Abuse Survivors Speak Out by Patricia Evans (pg. 41)