How to Recover From Emotional Abuse

Being in an emotionally abusive relationship takes a lot out of you mentally, emotionally and physically. It will take time for you to feel like yourself again. Here are some tips to help you through your recovery.

Leave the Relationship

The first thing you need to do is leave the abusive relationship and end all contact with your ex-partner. This is one of the hardest steps in recovery, but it is the most important if you are committed to healing your mind and heart from the abuse you endured.

Blurry Boy In Hallway - Teen Rehab Photo by Peter Hershey

Do What You Love

Chances are that your partner didn’t let you spend much time with your family and friends and prevented you from doing activities you loved. Now that you are on your own again, you can spend time with these people again and do the things you love to do. Keeping yourself busy with positive and fun activities will help you keep your mind off of the relationship and let you move on with your life.

Girl Playing Violin - Teen Rehab Photo by Photocapy

Support Team

Surround yourself with positive people who love you and have your back, who will let you vent and lend a shoulder to cry on. You can also find support in activities you enjoy such as meditation, yoga, and sports. You can also be a support system for yourself by taking care of your mind, body and heart.

Girl Smiling in Sunshine - Teen Rehab Photo by eflon

Be Truthful

Don’t lie to yourself about your abusive relationship. In order to get past it, you need to comes to terms about what happened. Don’t blame yourself for the abuse, and instead look at it as a learning experience for the type of people you do want to surround yourself with and the type of relationships you want to have in the future.

Distraught Girl - Teen Rehab Photo by Hernan Piñera

Forgive

This is another hard step and it will take time to reach, but forgiving your abuser for what they did to you is very healing. Forgiveness will let you put everything in the past and really move on with your life without carrying the heavy burden of abuse on your shoulders.

Feature Image: by joanna.babinska