Just A Simple White Lie? Worrying Signs Of Gaslighting
Your partner wanted to meet your family. When you remind them a week later, they deny it, question your memory and make you feel bad for suggesting it.
A friend claimed that you agreed to loan some money. But, you do not remember the conversation. Because you don't want to let them down, you agreed anyway.
Gaslighting is a form of emotional and psychological manipulation. Gaslighter start by sowing seeds of doubt. Next, they constantly question the victim's reality. Finally, the victim loses their self-esteem, sanity and confidence. When paralysed in fear and confusion, victims become the gaslighter's puppet.
Gaslighting aims to confuse and disorient. It starts with small white lies so that victim dismisses them as misheard or a lapse of memory. Over time, manipulations become more complex, making it difficult to discern truth from lies reality from illusion.
Identify gaslight-es and cut ties immediately. The right relationships should heal and make us confident, safe and loved.
- How does this person make you feel?
- Do they make you feel stupid, agitated or guilty?
- Or do they make you feel acknowledged, calm and confident?
