Gaslighting
Gaslighting is a topic I barely have touched writing about in my history of blogging upon my traumas. Not because I wasn’t aware of it or because it didn’t happen. The reason why I never write about this is because it is still hard to believe that the people who you are supposed to be safe with as a child and who are supposed to be there to protect you and love you are in fact the ones who have hurt you the most and not only that they try to hide it and shift blame. The reason I haven’t written about gaslighting is that it hurts.
Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation (abuse) were the abuser tries to create doubt within their victim(s), making them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying. Gaslighting involves attempts to destabilize the victim and delegitimize the victim’s belief.
Said abuser may even use other people who were not even part of the abuse and may be unaware of the abuse, in an attempt to find support for their (invisible) abuse. Narcissists are often very charming and target only a specific person or people and can for that reason use other people as flying monkeys to support their smear campaign, sometimes even targetting you as the abuser.
“The term originates in the systematic psychological manipulation of a victim by her husband in the 1938 stage play Gaslight, known as Angel Street in the United States, and the film adaptations released in 1940 and 1944. In the story, a husband attempts to convince his wife and others that she is insane by manipulating small elements of their environment and insisting that she is mistaken, remembering things incorrectly, or delusional when she points out these changes. The play’s title alludes to how the abusive husband slowly dims the gas lights in their home, while pretending nothing has changed, in an effort to make his wife doubt her own perceptions.” Source: Wikipedia
Over time I have met many forms of gaslighting as mentioned in the description above. From simple lies to being called crazy. The one that shocked me the most to unbelieve that it was being used on me was that I was told “you can’t help it either that you are born with it”
As if ANYONE gets born with C-PTSD. Let me tell you straight up, there is NO such thing as being born with C-PTSD. C-PTSD is a condition that is being caused when a person has experienced prolonged or repeated trauma usually starting in early childhood.
Gaslighting can be very powerful and dangerous for the victim as it brings so much doubt to oneself that the victim may doubt their own sanity and is a very serious form of emotional abuse!
For those doubting themselves, read the following over and over again when in doubt. What happened to you HAS happened to you. You have NOT imagined the abuse that was done onto you. Your abuser is trying to seed doubt into your mind to cause confusion. Seek support and understand that gaslighting is done so that the abuser gets away with their abuse and even worse makes you blame yourself.
In my links section, you can find a link to the page from Lili Hope Lucario she is, in my opinion, the best source out there for those who seek information on C-PTSD. She has written many articles about C-PTSD, the causes, the symptoms gaslighting and much much more. Her page has helped early on my healing process when I was still identifying myself with this diagnose and still does help me and many others.
