We have all met these kinds of people at least once in our lives, probably in a romantic relationship, and it hurts like hell to know that our partner has been manipulating us into thinking that what they showed us were true feelings.
So, without further ado, I’m giving all the ways of emotional manipulation, so you can recognize it the next time you see it!
The victim
You’ve met ‘the victim’ for sure at least once in your life. You simply know that it’s them every time they open their mouth.
“I’m just not good enough,” “You don’t love me anymore,” “You’re being so rude to me, I’m fragile, can’t you see?”
No matter what happens, these people are always insecure about something in their life and they never know what to do. Their goal is to get your approval and to make you pity them.
Why?
Well, they’re not called ‘victims’ for no reason. They want all of you to feel sorry for them and they give you all the power to make them feel better again because they can’t make themselves feel better.
You might feel overwhelmed with this type of person and get into a lot of fights with them because of their constant mood changes.
The expert in EVERYTHING
These people drain me the most because their constant need to be better than anyone else is so strong that somehow they manage to never show their insecurities.
But imagine how vulnerable and insecure a person must be for them to constantly need to compare themselves to you and try to belittle you by saying how better they are than you.
How they are above you and you aren’t worthy of their time. These people drain others with their toxic personalities.
They can make you full of their own insecurities and they constantly point them out to you so you see every little mistake you have ever made. Just run away from these people.
The flirty kind
Well, when it comes to these people, all you can do is watch and laugh at them.
They give so much of themselves away to others that they seem desperate.
Maybe because they are? You sure have a friend who is the flirty kind of a toxic person. Yeah, you know, the one who doesn’t have boundaries.
She will flirt with every ex you’ve ever had, with your guy friends, maybe even your boyfriend. She has no limit.
She will try to destroy your relationship and make you feel miserable without you even noticing it!
The self-defender
OK, you’ve done something wrong and it hurt someone. You admit it right away. But not this person because everyone else is to blame but them.
They are never the one whose fault it is that something is broken or some project didn’t end up the way it should’ve.
They’ll make you believe that you’re the one who messed it all up and they will never be the one to blame for anything.
The outburst of anger
“WHY WOULD YOU EVEN ASK ME THAT? HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE?!” I’ve dated this kind of emotional manipulator.
Actually, many of my boyfriends were like that but I never noticed the pattern.
I just thought that I was too clingy and that I was the one to blame. But I wasn’t.
I never was. It’s just that they are angry at themselves for some reason, for not achieving a certain goal or something like that.
So don’t bother with these people. They have anger management issues and it shouldn’t actually be something you need to worry about. They are not angry at you. They are angry at themselves.
The innocent liar
They’ll make up a story just to sound more interesting.
They want you to like them so they won’t make any excuse for that because why would they? It’s an innocent lie. But be careful.
You won’t ever know if they’re telling the truth about an important matter.
They might even tell lies about you and claim that, “Well, you didn’t say it like that,” or, “Ohh, I must have misunderstood you.”
The strong weakling
You’ve probably seen girls who keep playing the victim in relationships just because they are the ‘weaker’ gender and they make their partner feel like they need to look out for them constantly just so they won’t be sad.
You want to make them feel better somehow, but it doesn’t work. They’re just a stupid crybaby.
The triangle
Weird name, right? I don’t know what else to call them. These are the people who are nice to their victim and play all innocent just to gain their trust.
When they have it they go to someone else (or even everyone else?) just to tell them all your little secrets.
They want the approval and love of all the people they can surround themselves with, so they use the advantage they have to always know what’s going on and to simply gossip. Apparently, they don’t have their own life.
The aggressive one
If you don’t do what they want you to do, they might hurt you.
Or at least threaten to do so. Their vocabulary is a combination of curse words and threats that they’ll hurt you.
Don’t take them seriously, just try talking to them in a nice manner. If that doesn’t work either, just leave. It’s not worth it.
The ‘all-in-one’
This is probably an exaggeration, but there are people in this world who are multiple emotional manipulators and we didn’t recognize them until now.
They can be the weak victims who threaten to kill you if you don’t do what you want. So it’s really an interesting combination.
Now? Now you know what you need to look out for in people to see if they are emotional manipulators.
Sometimes they disguise themselves really well, but believe me, they will show their colors eventually.
Just keep your distance from these people and don’t dedicate your time and attention to them. You’ll feel more drained than you have ever felt before.
