Good communication within the couple is one of the pillars for building a healthy and balanced relationship, in which both parties feel heard and respected equally. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes it can simply be due to misunderstandings, frequent especially at the beginning of a relationship. However, if these become something that happens repetitively or habitually, it is an alarm signal. It may be an affectively irresponsible person, and one of their main behaviors is based on emotional invalidation.
This happens when one part of the couple feels that their feelings are ignored or even rejected by the other, which means becoming a victim of a form of emotional abuse. People who tend to emotionally invalidate others share a number of traits and behaviors that make them easy to identify.
Phrases like “you are exaggerating”, “don’t get like that” or “it’s not a big deal” commonly used by a couple that invalidates emotionally, as stated by María Beltrán Catalán, pedagogue and PhD in Psychology. The reasons why this happens can be diverse, from an apparently innocent emotional incompetence to a form of manipulation, often frequent in narcissistic people.
