Relationships

Can mental and verbal abuse be just as damaging as physical?

I've been in a couple sessions with a counselor and she told me it was still abuse. The reason I was having a hard time identifying it as abuse was because he never got physical. Growing up, I thought only getting hit was abused.

However, all the other signs there were; the gaslighting, the blameshifts, the insults, the idealization and then degrading stage, feeling like walking on eggshells or else he would throw a tantrum and threatened to break-up, him putting unrealistic expectations, getting jealous and expecting me to call him every 30 mins whenever I went outside, getting pressured into giving him money and lastly him stealing money from my savings account.

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+1 y
That's the irony of my story. I was abused but he never hit me.
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+1 y
I feel as if he destroyed my self-esteem, my confidence... as if he cracked open my shell and right now I'm taking a break from dating. I'm not ready yet. He did all that without ever hitting me.
Can mental and verbal abuse be just as damaging as physical?
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