1. Personality traits of manipulative partners
Being in a relationship with a manipulative partner is like being on a rollercoaster ride sans the fun and thrill. Your partner’s inconsistent behaviour, unpredictable moods and unreasonable demands may leave you confused and to some extent guilty. When you are with such a partner, you never know where you stand, and you will never have a clue what went wrong in the relationship if he or she happens to end it. Since love is blind, or as we believe it to be, it’s not easy to spot a manipulative partner when you are in a relationship. But his personality can speak volumes about what kind of a person he is. Let’s look at some personality traits that can help you detect a manipulative partner.
2. Always the fearful victim
If a person has this flair to play a victim and suffers from an unreasonable fear of abandonment, he or she can easily manipulate you into doing things you would otherwise not do. Such people can make any excuse to stay close to a third person, which in this case is the partner, and create such situations that would leave the partner feeling exhausted and wanting for some personal space.
3. Never having a stable relationship
It’s not uncommon to come across people who boast of being in multiple relationships, none of which are long-term or stable. And there will always be a sob story behind their break-up, which is capable of moving even the most unemotional person. Such people are too quick to fall in love and even quicker at getting out of it.
4. Having no clear idea of what he or she wants in life
People who lack clarity of what they want in life have this tendency to mask their indecisiveness by their adventurous streak. They would often talk about the numerous positions they held, jobs they had, the unaccomplished goals and what not. Being with such people feels initially exciting because they know how to keep a person busy with their tales. They are mostly inconsistent at everything they do—the religions they had followed and unfollowed or the people they loved and left. But at the end of the day, being with such a person would leave you exhausted and confused because you never know when you will become a part of his or her past.
5. Extremely emotional or moody
Being with a manipulative person is like sitting next to a pile of dynamite; you never know when it will blow. This is a classic trait of a manipulative person—he or she suffers from extreme emotions, for instance, a wailing kitten can make the person cry one day whereas, on some other day, the same kitten can make him or her angry. Dealing with such unpredictable mood swings can leave any person emotionally and mentally exhausted.
6. A good liar
Do we even need to explain that a manipulative person is good at lying or making excuses? They know what to say and when, and if the need arises, they can change their words to make a person feel better. Just like their mood and behaviour, there will always be inconsistencies in their words.
7. It’s always ‘I’ not ‘We’
When two people are in a relationship, they always care about each other. But this is not the case with a manipulative partner. For him or her, ‘I’ matters more than ‘we’. Such people will always place their needs before the needs of a partner or the relationship. This trait is not easy to spot at the beginning of the relationship but as time passes by, it becomes clearly evident.
8. Being with a manipulative partner isn’t easy
When we are in a relationship, we expect to receive love, care and support from a partner and reciprocate the same way. But when we are with a manipulative partner, we end up being the sole giver in the relationship, which can be quite an exhaustive emotional experience. No matter what we wish for, it’s difficult to change a person, which means once a manipulative partner will always be a manipulative partner unless there is some miracle. Miracles do happen very rarely but are they worth the wait?