Gigi Adelaide

Gigi Adelaide's Post

Gigi Adelaide

August 18, 2025

My ex best friend all over. Yuck, men.

Reactive abuse is when someone who is being mistreated, manipulated, or provoked ends up reacting in a way that the abuser then uses against them to flip the narrative and make them look like the aggressor.

Here’s the basic cycle:

1. Provocation – The abuser pushes your buttons repeatedly—through insults, lies, gaslighting, threats, or other forms of emotional/psychological abuse—often in a way that’s hard to prove.

2. Reaction – Eventually, you reach a breaking point and respond emotionally, maybe by yelling, insulting back, or even acting physically defensive.

3. Narrative flip – The abuser seizes on your reaction, ignores the context, and paints themselves as the “real victim,” using your outburst as “proof” that you’re unstable, abusive, or dangerous.

4. Reinforcement – They might share your reaction with others, twist the story to damage your credibility, or use it to justify further control or punishment.

It’s a form of manipulation and psychological warfare because it hides the long-term abuse behind a short, visible moment of your reaction—making outsiders believe the abuser’s version of events.

This is common in toxic relationships, narcissistic abuse, and even in workplaces or family dynamics. The key sign is that your reaction didn’t come out of nowhere—it was engineered.

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Gigi Adelaide

Kyle Hodge