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Constructive & Degrading Communication


Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
Proverbs 16:24

Communication builds relationships. Degrading communication is detrimental to relationships.
Degrading Communication
The dictionary shows that it is any words that hurt and want to control another, that causes fear or makes a person feel weak or powerless. Some people believe that degrading or destructive communication doesn't really hurt because there aren't marks or bruises, a blue eye, or broken bones to show. A pattern of degrading communication is also called verbal abuse and can be cruel because it leaves scars on the soul.

The purpose of verbal abuse
The purpose of verbal abuse is control. The offender wants to control the other person. In doing so, he or she makes you feel worthless. This is an unconscious process. The abuser does not say to herself / himself: "I want to control him / her and make him / her feel bad about themself." They say, "He / she is acting wrong, I am right and I need to change him / her by controlling him / her."

There are several forms of verbal abuse:

  • Blaming
    The victim is blamed for everything.
    "I don't want to do this to you, but you force me because you're so cold."
    "You only have yourself to blame for this pain because you're so stupid."
    "How could you do that?"
    "It's your fault because you should have done it differently."
    The abuser is always right in his / her own eyes. After years of blaming, the victim believes the message of the perpetrator. The victim believes the one who blames him or her.
    I am bad;
    I have to try to be better;
    I am cold; and
    I am disorganised.
    The abuser will say to a child, "If you didn't act like that, I wouldn’t be so angry." And the child believes that he / she was the cause of the perpetrator acting in this way.
    Once a victim gets the courage to confront the abuser, he / she will again blame other people, deny it or say, "You're exaggerating" / "I had a bad day" / "My father abused me."
  • Criticism
    The perpetrator criticises and continuously tells the victim what is wrong about him or her until the victim begins to believe it.
    "Put it down there and not there."
    "Why are you moving the lamp there? There is no light. Move it here."
    "It was a silly thing to do."
    "That's so typical of you."
    And with the kids: "That 80% could be a lot more."
    "That goal could have been under the poles."
    "Do you always have to mess up like this?"
    This is a pattern of criticism, and such comments will not uplift or educate a child. The family is trying hard to change but they are just never good enough.
  • Refuse to talk
    We are not talking about the usual silence that occurs in a relationship (which, of course, is also not good). This is silence that punishes.
    I know of the husband and wife who were conflicted and angry and hadn't talked to each other for days. Then he remembered that she had to take him to the airport the next day. He didn't want to break the silence by speaking first and so he wrote her a note saying:
    "Please wake me up at 05:00 tomorrow because you have to take me to the airport at 06:00."
    He put the note on her pillow and went to bed. The next morning, he woke up and saw it was already 09:00. He was very upset that his wife did not wake him because now he has missed his flight.
    Then he saw the note next to the bed...
    “It's 05:00. You need to wake up so that I can drop you off at 6:00."
    The victim starts talking to the perpetrator about something important that he / she wants to discuss, and the response is, "We're not going to talk about this." And then he / she walks away. Violators refuse to speak or change the subject.
    "What do you want me to say?"
    "Just stop, you always start something..."
  • Humiliation & Distructive Remarks
    The perpetrator makes the victim feel humiliated by calling him / her stupid or making him / her feel illogical.
    "Who would want to hire you because you only have matric?"
    "You should have seen it wasn't going to work."
    "You're too fat / Too skinny for that..."
  • Name-calling
    The offender will say things like:
    "No, Stupid, you have to do it this way!"
    "Yes, Fatso, I am on my way..."
    "You pig!!"
  • Threats
    The perpetrator uses threats such as:
    "If you do this or that then you'll have to leave the house."
    "If you do that I may lose my temper and then.... “
    "I'll shoot myself if you do."
    "Do it this way or I'll find someone else..."
  • Intimidation
    Perpetrators try to intimidate the victims by:
    • Hurting pets
    • To shout and curse
    • Giving angry looks
    • Slamming doors
    • Throwing stuff around and kicking
    • Driving faster and faster when you're arguing in the car
  • Withholding positive reinforcement
    This is an important point of verbal abuse. If you do not bless the other person with your words, you are mistreating him / her. A man tells me this week: "I miss my wife's support. She will never tell me that I am doing something well."
    "My husband never tells me I look beautiful."
    "My parents never tell me that they can see I'm doing my best or that I'm learning hard."
  • Jokes and sarcasm
    The perpetrators make jokes in which the victims are belittled but then laugh it off as if it were nothing.
    "You better not look at the other men."
    "What can one in any case expect from a woman?"
    If the victim does tell the perpetrator about his / her abuse, he / she will dismiss it and say that they are exaggerating: "It's just a joke you have no sense of humour." The perpetrator will deny that he / she said it or that the victim took it the wrong way and the victim wonders if they are losing their heads.

In 1998, a study in England and America found that children who see their parents verbally abusing each other are prone to depression, anxiety and problems in their interpersonal relationships. The study also shows that verbal aggression between parents is more traumatic for the children than physical violence between the parents. Studies also show that children, from homes where there is verbal abuse, later in life become victims in such relationships or become the perpetrator themselves.

What does the offender look like?
Offenders are friendly in front of or with other people, but his / her family must walk on eggs otherwise he / she becomes aggressive. Verbal abusers usually throw tantrums only in their own home and they don't want others to know about it. So, guard your soul when you speak out of the house. Most perpetrators are friendly and treat their partners very well so that everyone thinks they are the perfect match. Until the victim comes into the house...
Perpetrators think it is their God-given right to control others' lives and use the Bible to justify themselves by telling the victim what to do and then expecting her to submit to all his desires, decisions and plans without any opposition. It's his way or no way. Perpetrators believe that their victims' opinions, beliefs, feelings and thoughts have no value and dismiss them as illogical.

Arguments of the abuser:

  • I was just expressing myself;
  • I was just blowing off steam;
  • I tried to motivate her;
  • I grew up in a house where we talked like this;
  • Otherwise he does not hear; and
  • She is oversensitive.

Healing in the family

1. Think differently

Verbal abuse is the result of how you see the world. How you think about the other person is how you will behave towards him/her. The picture someone has of the other person determines how he or she will behave towards the other person, as one's brain determines behaviour. There are numerous examples that show the effect the brain has on behavior.
There was a man who went into a walk-in refrigerator of a butchery and the door closed behind him. He immediately knew he was going to die during the night because everyone had already gone home and they weren't going to find him until the next morning. All he had with him was a small book and a pen on which he could write his last letters to his family. He wrote every hour... "it's now 18:00... and this is what goes through my mind; it's 19:00 now... and this is how I now feel; it's 20:00 now…” and so he continued. The next morning at 07:00 they found him dead in the fridge but the irony was that the fridge wasn't even on! He thought himself dead.
There was also a man who was dying in a Catholic hospital. A priest was brought to minister the last communion to him, which the priest did, but with the wrong man. The patient’s condition, to whom the Priest served communion, was not critical, but after hearing the words of the priest, his condition suddenly worsened. 15 minutes later, he died. He believed that it was his time to die, and he did.
God's picture of man is the following:
a. Image of God
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27
It will help if one asks oneself that if the other person is the image bearer of God, how do I behave towards that person?
b. Abode of the Holy Spirit
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own
1 Corinthians 6:19
The question is, "If the Holy Spirit lives in the other person, how should I speak to that person because that is also how I speak to the Holy Spirit?"
c. Gifts to each other
House and wealth are inherited from fathers,
but a prudent wife is from the Lord.
Proverbs 19:14
How do I act toward the gift God has given me?

2. Recognize the abuse

The key to healing is to spot the verbal abuse for what it is. Recognition is the first step to healing. Because the perpetrator usually denies it, the rest of the family will have to recognise it.

3. Deal with your feelings of false guilt

Victims need to realise that they cannot always be the scapegoat, even though they may have already started to believe that they are bad people.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Psalm 139:14
Look at yourself again and see yourself as wonderful.

4. Set boundaries and talk to the offender

A boundary is only a boundary if it is communicated. Boundaries are for healing and not for punishment. It is there to protect.
"If you talk to me like that again, I'm going to leave the room but I will come back later."
Take Christian friends with you if your abuser won't listen to you. Their goal should be to break through his/her denial and work towards recovery.
Words have the power to build us up. Think about how you still remember words of encouragement and criticism from your parents and teachers. Throughout the Word, the importance and power of words is emphasized.
In the beginning, God said.... When God wanted to tell us how much He loved us, He sent His Son
to communicate to us His love.
Genesis 1: 2
We read in John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...
And in Proverbs 10:11
The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life.
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Ephesians 4: 29
In 1848, Nathaniel Hawthorne lost his job. He didn't want to tell his wife, so he got up every morning and pretended to go to work, but then he went looking for work. When the end of the month approached and he still hadn't found a job, he knew he would have to break the news to her.
"Sweetheart, there's something I need to tell you," he began and continued, "I lost my job."
He waited for her to react in shock and for her to be upset but to his surprise she clapped her hands and said, “This is wonderful news! Now you can write that book you've always wanted."
"And with what are we going to live?" he wanted to know.
She calmly replied: "I always knew that I was married to a genius, that's why every month when you gave me the money for groceries, I put away a few rand. It's enough to last us for two years."
Her love and support contributed to one of the most famous American literary works, The Scarlet Letter, appearing two years later.