Words have a Strange Ability to Shape Your Experiences
The insidious nature of verbal abuse.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
This popular saying has always been used as a defense against verbal attacks to show you are unaffected by a person’s insulting words.
But there’s something very wrong with it.
Because the truth is words have tremendous power to inflict harm. Hurtful words often cause life-long emotional damage.
Scars inflicted by words have long lasting effects that may never heal completely.
This is because hurtful words affect you on a deep personal level. Verbal and emotional abuse attacks the very core of your being. (Verbal and emotional abuse go hand and hand).
As someone who has experienced both physical and emotional abuse, I can say hands down that the emotional abuse has affected me on a much deeper level than any physical abuse.
Severe and consistent verbal and emotional abuse has affected every area of my life. Most significantly it’s affected my ability to speak up. Being frightened to death to talk has costed me on every level.
The inability to speak up has at times come across as being ‘slow’. I often wished I could…
