Welcome to Love and Abuse, the show about helping you identify poisonous communication and toxic behavior.

You deserve to be treated with respect and kindness.

That's why it's important that you learn to pinpoint manipulative and controlling behavior so that you keep your power and your sanity.

I'm your host, Paul Koliani.

Thank you. power and your sanity. I'm your host, Paul Koliani. Welcome to love and abuse.

All the information on this show is meant for educational purposes only.

Always seek a professional for your mental health and well-being and always pick your battles wisely.

This is going to be a short episode.

I wanted to record this really quick, but I wanted to read this as a hopefully inspiration on what is possible.

No matter what situation you're in, no matter how old you are,

especially how old you are, because there are some relationships out there where you've been in

them for a long time and you think, well, I'm just too old. I can't really do anything about it now. And so I'm just going to have to wait it out

until it's over or quite frankly, I'm dead. I don't really like when you think that way. I hope

you don't think that way. But that's what some people do. They think that way. They think this is it. I've made my bed. Now I'm going to sleep in it.

And it doesn't matter if I'm happy. I'm just going to wait it out until it's over.

That's a miserable existence. I don't want you to have a miserable existence.

So I'm just going to read you this email and make some comments on it and hope it is motivational for you.

This person wrote, Dear Paul, I'm a 70-year-old man in a 50-year marriage to an emotional abuser.

I listen to all of your podcasts sometimes two and three times.

I'm leaving this toxic relationship.

I finally hit the end. I knew she was abusive long ago,

but I didn't have a name for it. Nobody cares to even acknowledge that men are abused as well.

...