It might be worth looking at why it’s so easy for him to make you feel like an idiot, says Annalisa Barbieri
I am a 40-year-old woman who has been talked down to and patronised by my older brother my entire life. He often speaks to me as though he assumes I don’t understand simple things, and when I try to communicate to him that I do understand, he doesn’t seem to listen. I looked up to him when I was a child, so there’s this loud voice inside my head that says: “He’s speaking to you like you are an idiot, therefore you must be an idiot,” and my self-confidence is dented more every time.
This makes no sense because I have a good life. But I’m forever beating myself up. He seems to have the power to make me feel worthless.
