DiscoverYou Are Not CrazyWhose Shame Are You Carrying? How Abusers Offload Pain to Avoid Accountability
Whose Shame Are You Carrying? How Abusers Offload Pain to Avoid Accountability

Whose Shame Are You Carrying? How Abusers Offload Pain to Avoid Accountability

Update: 2025-08-061
Share

Description

This episode explores one of the most insidious aspects of emotional abuse: shame offloading. 

When someone can’t face their own emotional wounds—whether it’s failure, inadequacy, or internal contradictions—they often project that pain onto the person closest to them. 

You become the emotional scapegoat, the one who’s blamed, punished, or humiliated—not because you did something wrong, but because they can’t sit with their own discomfort.

I walk through how this dynamic shows up in abusive relationships, how it fractures your sense of safety and self, and why the nervous system starts to adapt to the abuse as a form of survival. 

I explore how abusers develop internal scripts to justify their behavior, how survivors unconsciously internalize those scripts, and what it takes to start breaking that pattern.

Support the show

Join the Patreon: https://patreon.com/Youarenotcrazy

*New Course*: Unhooked: Map the Cycle of Abuse in your Relationship

Website: Emotional Abuse Coach and high-conflictdivorcecoaching.com
Instagram: @emotionalabusecoach
Email: jessica@jessicaknightcoaching.com

{Substack} Blog About Recovering from Abuse


{E-Book} How to Break Up with a Narcissist
{Course} Identify Signs of Abuse and Begin to Heal
{Free Resource} Canned Responses for Engaging with an Abusive Partner

Comments 
00:00
00:00
x

0.5x

0.8x

1.0x

1.25x

1.5x

2.0x

3.0x

Sleep Timer

Off

End of Episode

5 Minutes

10 Minutes

15 Minutes

30 Minutes

45 Minutes

60 Minutes

120 Minutes

Whose Shame Are You Carrying? How Abusers Offload Pain to Avoid Accountability

Whose Shame Are You Carrying? How Abusers Offload Pain to Avoid Accountability

Jessica Knight