Who knew so much research went into this?
No one calls them "eggshell relationships," but that is what they turn into. Relationships where you have to tread lightly—each day you wake up you are figuratively having to walk on eggshells because your partner or someone you know behaves or acts all too frequently with a constellation of traits that are simply toxic. So toxic that you have to be ever so careful around them, lest they lash out at you. They do so because they are emotionally unstable.
Over the years and in doing research for my book Dangerous Personalities, I talked to many of the victims that either lived with or were in a relationship with an emotionally unstable individual. Here are some of the unfiltered words they used to describe what these toxic individuals were like:
angry, bitter, chaotic, clingy, complainer, confusing, controlling, critical, cruel, dangerous, deceptive, delusional, dehumanizing, demanding, demeaning, denigrating, desperate, destructive, depressive, disconnected, disorganized, disquieting, draining, drama-queen, dysfunctional, emotional, envious, erratic, exasperating, explosive, fear-inducing, frightening, frustrated, frustrating, hysterical, imbalanced, impossible, impulsive, inappropriate, incomplete, inconsistent, irrational, irritable, irritating, malevolent, malignant, masochistic, mean, mental, mercurial, miserable, moody, morbid, nasty, perplexing, rage-filled, resentful, sarcastic, scary, seething, seesaw, suffocating, suicidal, tantrums, tempestuous, tense, threatening, tiresome, tormented, tormentor, tornado, train-wreck, tumultuous, turbulent, uncaring, undependable, unforgiving, unhappy, unhinged, unpredictable, unreasonable, unreliable, unstable, untrusting, vengeful, vindictive, violent, volatile, wound-up.*
No one calls them "eggshell relationships," but that is what they turn into. Relationships where you have to tread lightly—each day you wake up you are figuratively having to walk on eggshells because your partner or someone you know behaves or acts all too frequently with a constellation of traits that are simply toxic. So toxic that you have to be ever so careful around them, lest they lash out at you. They do so because they are emotionally unstable.
Over the years and in doing research for my book Dangerous Personalities, I talked to many of the victims that either lived with or were in a relationship with an emotionally unstable individual. Here are some of the unfiltered words they used to describe what these toxic individuals were like:
angry, bitter, chaotic, clingy, complainer, confusing, controlling, critical, cruel, dangerous, deceptive, delusional, dehumanizing, demanding, demeaning, denigrating, desperate, destructive, depressive, disconnected, disorganized, disquieting, draining, drama-queen, dysfunctional, emotional, envious, erratic, exasperating, explosive, fear-inducing, frightening, frustrated, frustrating, hysterical, imbalanced, impossible, impulsive, inappropriate, incomplete, inconsistent, irrational, irritable, irritating, malevolent, malignant, masochistic, mean, mental, mercurial, miserable, moody, morbid, nasty, perplexing, rage-filled, resentful, sarcastic, scary, seething, seesaw, suffocating, suicidal, tantrums, tempestuous, tense, threatening, tiresome, tormented, tormentor, tornado, train-wreck, tumultuous, turbulent, uncaring, undependable, unforgiving, unhappy, unhinged, unpredictable, unreasonable, unreliable, unstable, untrusting, vengeful, vindictive, violent, volatile, wound-up.*
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