Emotional damage refers to the deep and long-lasting psychological harm caused by experiences such as trauma, rejection, neglect, harmful relationships, chronic stress and many more. It hinders a person’s ability to form healthy relationships. Emotionally damaged people affect others consciously or unconsciously in a bad way.

Emotionally damaged people often experience negative emotions and this negativity can be contagious. They tend to interpret neutral comments or actions as insults and become defensive. The past experiences of emotionally damaged people make them think that others are planning to hurt them because of which they either withdraw from relationships or hurt the other person.

Emotionally damaged people give strong reactions to minor issues and problems whenever those issues touch their old pains and unhealed wounds. Other people get confused and hurt by these reactions. Emotionally damaged people have trust issues because of which they constantly test and doubt others and interpret small disappointments as betrayals, which makes other people exhausted, hurt and drained. Emotionally damaged people tend to have low self-esteem. They rely on others for validation, which consumes a significant amount of time and energy of the people around them.

So, emotionally damaged people can be exhausting and emotionally difficult to deal with. They can even hurt those who are actually trying to help them. Still, they deserve to be helped during their emotional growth. They hurt others because they are hurting. This explains their actions, even though this doesn’t justify them.