Your definition of emotional abuse contains some (nasty) behaviors that, no doubt, many married individuals have engaged in when they were angry and in an argument. You come off as a little bit censorious and opinionated at times during discussions on this forum, so I am a bit skeptical of the idea that you have never engaged in a single one of those behaviors on your list. They are bad things, but some of those behaviors are also fairly typical of interactions with human beings when they are angry. Why don't you try something and ask your husband to honestly tell you if you have ever displayed any of those behaviors, or even if he has himself. Is there a wife out there who has never held her husband to an unrealistically high standard and criticized him? Maybe one of those shy, silent-as-a-church-mouse demure wives is like that, but I hear they talk at home, too. And you don't seem to be that type, just guessing from your posting style.
I'm direct, and certain people can't handle that. But I think you may be calling the kettle black, you may be a wee bit opinionated and censorious yourself. Now you keep repeating the phrase so it must mean something to you " unrealistically high standard" this must be a personal issue. I don't need to ask my husband nor he me. We do not engage in this behavior.
Here is the list again:
1. Humiliation, degradation, discounting, negating. judging, criticizing
2. Domination, control, and shame
3. Accusing and blaming, trivial and unreasonable demands or expectations, denies own shortcomings
4. Emotional distancing and the “silent treatment,” isolation, emotional abandonment or neglect
If your husband knew you'd serve him papers if he was ever excessively critical of you.... that's something a man (or woman) deserves to know up front. Love is supposed to be long-suffering, and we should tell married couples to be long suffering, not give them a list of unacceptable behaviors and tell them that if their spouse does that, they have a right to divorce. The problem with that, is that it just isn't Biblical.
I would really appreciate if you would listen to what I am saying. Emotional abuse is a PATTERN of behavior. You yelling at you wife once is being a jerk. You dominating, yelling, criticizing, controlling and isolating is emotional abuse. Now whether believe there is such a thing makes no difference. Clearly you don't. But the fact is it is a type of abuse. Now you can trivialize it, you can dislike me for being direct and straightforward. But that doesn't change the fact that it is abuse and God does not expect a person to stay in an abusive marriage. You can keep twisting to be right but you are coming off as very immature. I don't know how old you are but I think you're old enough to know better.
continued....