Red Flags: Abuse Characteristics
These are some personality traits and characteristics that a potentially abusive partner MAY have.
- Possessiveness - Says you “belong” to them. Treats you as property.
- Bossiness - Tells you what to do all the time. Treats you as subservient.
- Jealous - Thinks jealousy is love. Get jealous of the time you spend with family or friends. Gets angry when you talk to people of the opposite sex, no matter the situation.
- Invasive - Doesn’t respect your privacy. Doesn’t let you have alone time or time with friends. Goes through your things (emails, text messages, and personal items.)
- Controlling - Tells you what to wear, how to act and who to see. Tells you to feel a certain way.
- Demanding - Checks up on you constantly. Has unrealistic expectations of you.
- Critical - Puts your friends and family down. Tells you aren’t good enough. Belittles your interests, appearance, intelligence and opinions.
- Blaming - Blames you for their feelings/actions. Says it’s your fault something happened. For example, “If you hadn’t done that I wouldn’t have hit you” or “If you don’t tell me where you go, I have to follow you.”
- Hypersensitive - Abusers are easily offended. They perceive the slightest joke as very insulting.
- Dual personality - Extremely moody. Shows rage that leads to an explosion, followed by being very apologetic and sweet afterward. Like Jekyll and Hyde.
- Demeaning - Puts you down or embarrasses and shames you, either verbally or physically, in front of friends and family and in public.
- Cruel - Breaks things you care about, hurts animals or children, taking satisfaction from making you cry or feel bad. Either physically, sexually or verbally inflicts pain or hurt on you.
