They belittle and trivialize you, your accomplishments, or your hopes and dreams.

Hello dear ones, thank you for meeting me back here on this page to read about my experience with an emotionally abusive husband. It has been three weeks and two days since I left, and it is bittersweet.
I still have times when I break down crying for what might have been if he had been genuine in love, and in my life. I am also finding freedom from so many things that left scars. The topic I am going to share with you today is one of those scars. 

Before I met Dom, many many years ago I was a young woman with the world at her feet. I had graduated high school with good grades and was overjoyed that I was accepted into the university of my choice. For six long years, I worked very hard at earning a masters degree in business administration. I had dreams of being an owner of a local bookshop and connecting with my community through my love of books. 

The year that I graduated is when I met him. We fell in love quickly and were married in under a year.He convinced me to take a year off after all of my hard work, and since he was ten years my senior he already had a business up and running and was more than able to take care of me. I agreed and loved him more for his willingness to let me be prepared before jumping into the business world. After the ring was on my finger the emotional abuse began.

He had not obtained a degree and had started a business without one. I was put down for spending all of that money and was told that I must be pretty stupid for needing a degree to do what he had already done. His famous line was "If you think that in this economy you can start a bookstore all by yourself, then you need a check up from the neck up." He broke my confidence and I never did open the little shop of my dreams. 

Over time I began to feel stupid for having those dreams, and my confidence in myself was completely shattered. He knew this and this is when he started to correct me often, and he treated me like his child rather than his wife. This was his successful attempt to break me down and wear me like a shoe. 

He made fun of me to his family for my needing such an expensive education, any comments or suggestions that I made that contradicted his personal opinion were dismissed as ridiculous. I began to feel as though he resented me for having to support me because he reminded me that I should be grateful for his income very often. 

For fifteen years I felt like an unloved pet, and I was always crying and shaking. I wanted to make myself as small as possible to escape his control, teasing, bullying, and all kinds of other emotional abuse.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, or if any of this rings true to you please get out as soon as you can. If you are already gone then have no contact with him. Even if you have children there are people in your life, or in your community that are willing to communicate for the benefit of the children. You do not have to endure any more of this.