A client asked me, “What would you do if your ex is playing mind games?”
1) Respond not react
Mind games are about ’emotional power”. They’re like a puppet and puppet master, and the string is your emotions. The more your ex can manipulate your emotions, the more they can play you. They literally “own” you!
Learning to respond rather than react to your ex’s words and actions gives you more control. You control your responses and control your emotions as well. When they can no longer control your emotions, they can no longer manipulate you.
2) Tell them you know what they’re doing
Mind games work when the someone is not aware of how and when they’re being played. The person playing mind games assumes they’re smarter than the person they’re playing. If you know that your ex is playing mind games with you, the best antidote to mind games is to tell them that you know what they’re doing; and do not like it or approve of it.
A person who truly values a relationship with you will feel bad and stop the mind games. Someone who is immature and emotionally dysfunctional will just try and find another mind game to play; or give up and move on to somebody else.
3) Don’t play them back
We all have the capacity to be manipulative. When tempted to “give them a taste of their own medicine”, remember that the only person whose time and emotions you waste playing mind games is you.
I know that now, but back then before I became a love coach, I played it back to the best of them. My thinking was “Play the Player!”, but the more “I played the player” the angrier I got (with myself). Not only was I wasting my time (and blocking love), but I was doing the very thing that I resented in the other person.
4) Work on improving your self-esteem and self-value
We’re all vulnerable to being manipulated, however, some people are more vulnerable than others. That is, they have something about them that mind game players are able to take advantage of and exploit to advance their own agenda. It could be fear of rejection, fear of abandonment, fear of not finding someone else, feelings of inadequacy etc.
Since you can’t change someone else and can only change you, it’s up to you to assert your value by taking away whatever it is that makes you more vulnerable to mind games.
5) Walk away
Mind games players have one and only one motivation and that is to advance their own agenda. Thy don’t care if it is at the expense of the person being played. Most people are intuitive enough to realize when and how they’re being played and walk away, but even where the mind games “succeed”, the relationship will become troubled over time.
Someone who takes advantage of you and exploits your greatest fears, weaknesses and vulnerabilities does not “value you” (even if they tell you over and over that they love you). Your decision to enter or continue a relationship with someone who is into mind games (the game playing can at times offer some kind of “excitement” and edge to the relationship) should be weighed against the long term effects of the mind game playing – especially if you give in to the “head games” and the other person learns that playing mind games with you works.
In other words, refuse to play the game and there will be no game to play.
RELATED: 7 Things To Do When Your Ex Cuts Off All Contact And Won’t Respond
My ex only responds to my texts if I ignore her. I hate that I have to play mind games to get her attention and frankly tired of hanging by the phone, waiting for a call, but she leaves me no choice.
You have a choice… don’t play!
My ex recently got in touch after 4 months of no contact. We arranged to go have coffee but just as friends. Last minute she cancelled saying it was a bad idea. Yesterday I heard from a mutual friend that she is dating some other guy. I know she likes playing games but this is low even for her.
Everything about this article is so true. Players only love you when they’re playing
I begged for 2 weeks then I left him alone for 6 weeks because it was useless trying to get him back so soon. I then texted him. “Hi, how are you? Long time no speak. He replied after 2 hours, “I’m good and you?” I said I was good too and asked what he was up to? No response. So I waited 2 weeks and texted him again, “You good?”. He responded in less than an hr. “Good. Whats up?”. I told him about things that happened recently and asked him what his week was like. But NO answer. What is he doing? If he doesn’t want me to contact him what doesn’t he say so? And why does he reply then when I follow up he doesn’t answer?
1) May be he thinks you are playing him and he’s playing you back or, 2) he’s expecting you to pursue him. Try not to wait another two weeks before you contact him again and see if he responds. If he does follow up with another contact etc. If he’s responding then it may just be that he wants to see just how serious you are about staying in contact. If he doesn’t respond…well… you just have to accept that it’s just a game for him.
My ex contacted me after 4 months of no contact. At first it started with just texts inquiring on each other’s lives, then it moved onto flirting. Its so obvious that we are really into each other but he says we can only be just friends. I made a huge mistake of sleeping with him because I wanted to prove to both of us that we were more than just friends. Since then he has backed out. He doesn’t imitate contact anymore and when I call him he seems in a hurry to get off the phone. But then he says a lot of things about how much he cares about me, sometimes I don’t know what is going thought his mind. I have been sitting here trying to decide if I should just call him and tell him I’d like out of this relationship.
Your ex may care a lot about you and even love you but as he said, at this point all he can offer you is “just friends”. Calling him to tell him you want out of the relationship when you “out” of a relationship (broken up) one, does not make any sense and two, will not make him any more interested. You either take what he’s able to give you or wants to give you, or you move on. Forcing things to happen just makes them worse.
The first guy I dated was a total game player. No matter how I responded, or didn’t respond he would play more mind games. It didn’t matter how mature or kind I was toward him. He just wouldn’t quit. Eventually I started playing the games back because I got so sick and tired of it. I’d hope to teach him a lesson, but it only made things worse and I ended up having to break up with him. I know I’m not perfect but I really did my best in the relationship, where as he treated me like a toy. I suppose I learned a lot from the relationship, but still I was stupid for ever letting it get that far. I should have broken it off within the first 3 months rather than letting it continue for a year and a half. Playing the players game is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.
This article is spot on. No contact when used to get someone to comply is nothing more than “if you don’t behave the way I want, I will shut you out”. I know it from personal experience with a mother who emotionally abused me for years and still cuts me off whenever I don’t do what she wants me to do.
The important thing is to set boundaries and not to let someone else manipulate or control you.
Most people blame the other person for the failure of the relationship, but guess what? You did things that damaged the relationship too! A bad relationship takes two people just like a good relationship takes two.