'Stay or else I'll hurt myself': suicide threats as emotional abuse

The Hook Up - A podcast by triple j

To begin with Nat from Perth called her break-up a ‘traumatic rejection story’. But down the line, she realised there was a lot more to it than that. Nat found herself in the incredibly hard situation, a relationship she wanted to leave, but felt had to stay in when her partner threatened to take her own life. Threatening self-harm and suicide can be a form of emotional abuse, and is more common than we realise. We look at how to manage this super difficult situation with family violence specialist Ada Conroy and clinical psychologist Tiffany Valente. Content warning: This episode contains discussion around self-harm, depression, emotional abuse, family violence and suicide.