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Are you guilty of being passive aggressive? Therapist reveals the 8 bad habits – from withholding positive feedback to being flaky with texting back
- London-based therapist Abby Rawlinson shares mental health content online
- She discussed how people express passive aggressive anger in Instagram post
- Revealed eight common ways, including ‘hurtful teasing disguised as a joke’
- Other ways are giving underhanded compliments and poor listening
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A therapist has revealed eight common ways people express passive-aggressive anger — from withholding positive feedback to giving underhanded compliments.
London-based therapist Abby Rawlinson regularly shares information on mental health topics with her more than 124,000 followers on Instagram.
In a aftershe discussed passive-aggressive anger, explaining what it is and how it can be expressed.
Abby wrote, “Being passive-aggressive isn’t about being malicious.
“It’s often a strategy people use when they think they don’t deserve to express their opinion or they are afraid to express their anger.”
A therapist shared eight common ways people express passive aggressive anger in a post on Instagram (stock image)
The first common way people express passive-aggressive anger that Abby mentioned was hurtful teasing disguised as jokes.
Next on her list were people who withheld positive feedback. Poor listening was the third way people express passive-aggressive anger on Abby’s list.
She followed this up by not calling back, texting, or emails as any other way.
Chronic lateness was also on the list, as were the poor who kept their promises.
The seventh item on the list was inconsistent silent treatment.
In the comment section of the post, Abby described inconsistent silent treatment as “ignoring you sometimes (via text or phone calls etc), and sometimes being in touch.”
She noted that this kind of inconsistent contact “confuses you as to whether they’re doing it on purpose or not.”
Taking the last spot on Abby’s list were underhanded compliments.
The therapist also asked her followers about their own experiences with passive-aggressive anger.
She wrote: ‘Do you recognize any of these behaviors in yourself or in others?’
Several responded and revealed examples of passive-aggressive anger they witnessed – from others or from themselves.
One wrote: ‘My husband does this to me all the time. I called him out for an insult last night and he immediately tried to throw it back at me by saying that anyone else would know this is a joke, you can’t take a joke. I said a joke should be funny.’
Another added: ‘If you express your feelings to the person and they don’t listen. You start to become passive-aggressive.’
And a third said, ‘Sigh. I do all this! Definitely raised to be quiet and behave.’
A number of people responded to the post and shared their own experiences, some said they recognize some of the behavior in themselves