How To Protect Yourself From Manipulation
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You can protect yourself from manipulation by keeping an eye out for the signs. Unfortunately, the signs of manipulation can be difficult to see and are often expertly covered up by the manipulator.
These people take advantage of you at your low points, so they can be difficult to avoid.
To best protect yourself beyond this, focusing on your own health and your social life can also be a key tactic. Keep reading to find out more about how to spot manipulators and what to avoid.
Is it Always Possible?
Unfortunately, it is not always possible to protect yourself from manipulation. Oftentimes, manipulators are experts at what they do. They wait until their victims are at their lowest point before they go for it.
When you are at this low point, you are easier to manipulate. Every person goes through low points at some time in their life, so you can not always avoid these manipulators.
The best way to try and protect yourself is to keep an eye out for the signs and safeguard your mental health.
How Can You Recognize Manipulation?
You can recognize manipulation through how it makes you feel as well as opinions from other people. Your brain often recognizes when you are being manipulated, making you feel off or questioning yourself.
Manipulators make you question your reality, feel like your boundaries are being crossed, or overall overwhelmed and uncomfortable. While it may not seem obvious to you when you are deep in it, others can often see when this is occurring.
However, to get help from outsiders, you have to be able to communicate. One of the main tactics of manipulators is to make you doubt your abilities to communicate and close you off from others.
What are Common Manipulation Strategies?
Common manipulation strategies most often play off of your emotions. These tactics involve taking your emotions and using them against you to attach you to the manipulator so that you are more easily taken advantage of.
These strategies involve things like playing on your insecurities. Manipulators will quickly learn what hurts you and use it against you to make you doubt yourself. When you are in an insecure state, you are easier to manipulate.
Other strategies involve things like goading the victim into exploding emotionally. When a person is forced to lose control of their emotions, it is easy for a manipulator to use it against them to turn them into the victim, even if they are lying or being cruel.
Manipulation Traps You Need to Avoid
The main manipulation trap to avoid is isolation. Isolation is a trap that makes manipulating the victim much easier. You can see this happening mainly through romantic relationships or even friendships.
These relationships often take advantage of emotions to accelerate the relationship quickly and leave you reliant on this person. When they have a hold on your emotions, they begin to make you believe they are better for you or make you doubt everyone around you.
When you fall into this, you separate yourself from others. When you are separated from others, you have no one to save you from the manipulator or make you see what is going on. You will be trapped in this loop with them alone, which is their goal.
How Can You Say No in a Polite Way
You can say no in a polite way by expressing how you feel. Connecting a no to how you are feeling or a reason can make people more likely to accept the rejection. In addition, it can make the rejection land easier and feel less harsh.
This can include things like I wish I could, but I can’t with a reason (if you have one). Any variation of that language can be effective. However, you do not have to be kind to say no or have any reasoning besides not wanting to.
Final Thoughts on How To Protect Yourself From Manipulation
Manipulators are masters at blending in with everyone around them and often seem very charismatic. Therefore, you must be vigilant in keeping an eye out for them to protect yourself and others.
However, they are not so easily spotted most of the time. To best protect yourself, focus on maintaining your mental health.
Save your mind and feelings from these people as they prey on the vulnerable. Keep an eye out for your friends and protect each other from these people.
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