If someone tries to erode your self-confidence, deny your experience, or plant seeds of self-doubt, there’s a word for that: Gaslighting.
“You only think you know.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I never said that.”
Gaslighting is abuse. It happens in relationships, often without the awareness of the person receiving it. It can cause trauma. And it’s never okay.
We need to know more about what gaslighting is, and why someone would use it. Trauma survivors may be more susceptible to this kind of abuse, so it’s important to understand what gaslighting is and realize when it is happening in a situation, and how to deal with it.
What is Gaslighting?
Gaslighting is intentionally verbally manipulating someone so they question their beliefs, judgment, reality, memories, or sanity.
It can be done by a partner, friend, or family member to gain control. A person wants to get a particular outcome or wants to increase or hold power by claiming the other person is wrong, mistaken, or crazy. Gaslighting can develop or intensify over time.
What Does Gaslighting Feel Like?
You begin to question your own beliefs and thoughts. You may wonder: If they are so convinced this is true, maybe I am making things up? You may feel confused and unable to trust yourself.
As gaslighting is emotional abuse, you may:
Feel confused
Get defensive
Doubt yourself
Question your reality and memory
Have trouble making choices
Feel you have to prove yourself
Make excuses for the other’s behavior
To support your story or avoid put-downs, to survive, you may even lie to the person who abuses you.
Gaslighting versus Swaying Opinion
The difference between gaslighting and simply sharing your beliefs is the intent to manipulate.
For example, say a person tells their partner they want to buy a new TV. And their partner isn’t convinced it’s a good idea.
In a healthy relationship, the person might try to persuade by sharing their reasons:
“I really like this TV and think we should buy it because X, Y, Z.” (judgment-free opinion)
Gaslighting happens when a person tries to disempower someone else to get the desired outcome,
“You don’t care about our family enough to buy this TV.” (inducing guilt)
“You obviously don’t realize that TVs are important like everybody else in the world does.” (belittling)
“I can’t believe you think our current TV is fine.” (criticizing)
Gaslighting is not just having a different opinion or experience. It is the manipulation of power in a relationship for a particular outcome.
What Does it Sound Like?
Gaslighting is different than someone just trying to convince you of something. It’s behavior that attempts to manipulate you. Techniques may include trying to deny your reality, control the narrative, blame you, question your memory, trivialize, deny, divert or withhold information.
Here are more phrases a gaslighter may use to try to manipulate you:
That’s not how the story goes.
That never happened.
You don’t remember things right.
It’s your fault.
You’re being crazy.
You’re making this up!
You’re just paranoid.
You’re too sensitive.
You’re overreacting!
I’m not going to talk to you until you stop this nonsense.
This is perfectly normal. It’s just how things are.
I can’t believe you didn’t know that.
You got that crazy idea from your friends.
There’s no person in the world who actually believes that!
I just did it because I love you.
You made me do this!
Gaslighting is a felt experience
Just like trauma, the most valid claim to gaslighting comes from the person receiving it. Whether it happened depends on perception. Do you feel manipulated? Do you feel like something is not quite right? Do you feel like someone is using tactics in order to keep you in doubt, and keep themselves in control? It’s important to trust that instinct.
Does the Gaslighter Allow For Dialogue?
Gaslighters don’t usually allow for dialogue. Or if they do, it is just used to find a way to demean you further or circle back to their story. They allow enough discussion so that the other person second-guesses themselves or thinks they are crazy.
It’s also important to be sure, if you are a trauma survivor, that you are grounded and present in your current relationship, rather than being triggered by the past or your hyperaroused nervous system. Feeling overwhelmed from past trauma can activate body memories like the experience is happening again.
This is another good reason for trauma survivors to do their own healing work of addressing their past trauma, so that past trauma doesn’t show up when it is not currently present.
Why Gaslighters Use the Technique
A person manipulates when they want or need to feel in control. They may have learned this behavior to try to manage their own trauma history or lack of ability to emotionally regulate.
Gaslighting could be an ingrained coping mechanism that someone has used as a survival strategy their whole life, or it might be situational. This “survival strategy” or coping mechanism can originate in childhood as a way to cope with trauma. Or it can originate during a stressful time when they get scared or things get tough.
For example, one partner may cheat in a relationship and discover that gaslighting is a way to stay in control or not be rejected.
A gaslighter may function by maintaining a power structure where they are right, and they are in control and the other person is questioning or confused. Whether the harm is intended or not, gaslighting is abuse.
For trauma survivors, it’s easy to fall into this space If you come from trauma, gaslighting was probably happening in your childhood. When you’ve experienced complex trauma, you may not trust yourself.
A person who grows up with a foundation of secure attachment may realize the signs of gaslighting pretty quickly and leave. However, a trauma survivor may be more likely to perceive manipulation as familiar and therefore normal. It may be easier for a person with trauma to believe the abuser — “Maybe he’s right, maybe I’m terrible.”
Trauma survivors, you deserve better! With this trauma-informed view of gaslighting, I hope to increase awareness of its unhealthy role in relationships. If you are the victim of gaslighting, you deserve better. Healthy relationships and healthier boundaries are possible. And they are reparative!
Recognize the abuse. Honor your inner voice. You are strong enough to walk away. You deserve better!
A trauma-informed therapist can help If you’re a potential new client, please contact/email me for more information about care. If gaslighting is combined with physical abuse, and your safety is in danger, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline 24/7 via:
phone, at 800-799-7233
live chat, at thehotline.org
text, by texting LOVEIS to 22522
Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.
Robyn is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with 20+ years of experience providing psychotherapy, as well as the founder and clinical director of a private practice, Brickel and Associates, LLC in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. She and her team bring a strengths-based, trauma-informed, systems approach to the treatment of individuals (adolescents and adults), couples and families. She specializes in trauma (including attachment trauma) and the use of dissociative mechanisms; such as: self-harm, eating disorders and addictions. She also approaches treatment of perinatal mental health from a trauma-informed lens.
Robyn also guides clients and clinicians who wish to better understand the impact of trauma on mental health and relationships. She has a wide range of post graduate trauma and addictions education and is trained in numerous relational models of practice, including Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), the Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT), and Imago therapy. She is a trained Sensorimotor Psychotherapist and is a Certified EMDRIA therapist and Approved Consultant. Utilizing all of these tools, along with mindfulness and ego state work to provide the best care to her clients. She prides herself in always learning and expanding her knowledge on a daily basis about the intricacies of treating complex trauma and trauma’s impact on perinatal distress.
She frequently shares insights, resources and links to mental health news on Facebook and Twitter as well as in her blog at BrickelandAssociates.com
To contact Robyn directly:
www.BrickelandAssociates.com
Hiy name is Miss Tina..
I’m aware of ptsd .. But was trying to be explained to what C- Ptsd ..
Is .
Ease if can please text me at my GMA please some information . [email protected]
I read your article and it was an eye opening resource that I needed. In my case gaslighting has been the only thing I knew growing up, I didn’t know it existed until I read this. Now I’m over 40, with 3 teenagers and a married daughter. And sadly I repeated that behavior with my own family, what can I do now to correct myself? And also to help them feel better about themselves?