Yes - it is emotional abuse - I have been victim to that n emotional abuse can sometimes be worse than physical or sexual only because there is no "clear evidence" of it happening like a bruise or blood or broken bones or etc - the scars are internal - but it has actually been closely compared to the psychological warfare experienced by POWs by the psychiatrists n psychologists. Abusive people are not always "hurtful" - the abusive relationship goes through a cycle.

Escalation phase - things are not always bad but sometimes they flare up and the abuser will always point out the way the victim "caused" the abuse to occur and may or may not apologize for the action (this is to introduce the idea of "if i just change enough things will get better again")

Explosive phase - abuser is violent (emtionally, psychologically, physically, sexually and/or spiritually)most of the time (and the victim is always told it is their fault and by this time generally believes it to be true) with little break between

Honeymoon phase - abuser is apologetic and promises it will never happen again etc and everything seems to be perfect again

The cycle then repeats

These phases may last weeks or months and because of that it is much like brain washing and very hard for thevictim to break away from because usually the abuser causes the victim to become dependant on them financially, isolates them from family and friends, convinces them nobody wants to be around them - tgerefore they are also dependant on them emotionally, they can also become dependant on them physically if the abuser convinces the victim to move in with them ... The more dependant on the abuser the victim becomes, the easier it is for the abuser to manipulate the mibd control and it becomes very hard to get away - your boyfriend is abusive - get away now before it gets worse if at all possible, go to a shelter if you need to...i did that once