If you’re in a relationship and there’s something not quite sitting right with your interactions, you might be in a manipulationship.
Entering into a partnership can be tricky stuff and there always seems to be buzzwords to describe a naff pairing, but this one is a new term you might not have heard of before.
A breakup expert explains the warning signs your partner is manipulative below:
Paige Moyce (@paigemoyce) is a relationship and breakup coach on TikTok who regularly posts videos of signs to be wary of in a partner.
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Her speciality is to help her clients detox from toxic relationships and to find happiness again.
She claims to be able to help people to ‘go from completely fear ridden, stuck with this person even though they're not really happy’ to being more self-confident.
Paige explained that she has had numerous people come to her after ‘struggling with a whole heap of symptoms’ and unable to recognise what kind of relationship they were in.
To that end, she shared four warning signs you're in or have been in a manipulationship:
Everything is on their terms
Paige said: “Things are good when they say it's good. Things are not so good when they say it's not good.
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"Your voice is not heard as much as theirs.”
You have an obsessive fear of losing them
Another warning sign is when you find yourself fearing the thought of losing them or as though you can’t cope without them - even if you're not happy.
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Paige said: “You've had countless conversations with friends and family whereby they have said to you, ‘this doesn't seem right’.
“They've maybe even told you to [leave]. You've maybe even tried to leave in the past, but yet you still feel like you need them, and you just can't work it out. You almost beat yourself up."
"Why would I want someone who I'm not happy with or who has hurt me, or who can lie to me?"
Your self-esteem is low
The third sign to look out for is that your self-esteem takes a dive because of your relationship.
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Paige then asked her viewers to do a simple exercise to find out if they’re in a manipulationship: “If I was to say to you now, write me five bullet points of what you like about yourself, you'd struggle.
“You'd struggle to write them and feel that they're accurate. Your opinion on you is very much based on what this person thinks of you. If they say you look pretty, then you look pretty.
“If they say you're smart, then you're smart. If they say that you're enough, you're enough. But if they treat you in some other way, all of those things leave the building.”
You wonder what changed
Paige said you may ask yourself: "Why did they go from this person to this person and how do I get back the beginning version or the glimmers of the beginning version that you still may see?
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"These are all signs that you are in or have been in a manipulationship.”
She explained that when you are holding on to those little moments of seeing who they used to be among the negative ways they are treating you now, is a major red flag.
But Paige wants you to know that you can leave this behind and get back to being secure and even thriving with someone who treats you amazingly in the future.
Just watch out for the signs and leave as soon as you realise that it’s a manipulationship.
Topics: News, Sex and Relationships, TikTok, Social media
Britt Jones