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Think you might be dealing with a gaslighter? Watch out for these relationship red flags.
Gaslighting, a manipulation tactic often wielded by emotional abusers, gradually makes you question your own judgment, feelings, memories and reality. Because of its insidious nature, it can be hard for victims to recognize it as it’s happening.
Abusers use gaslighting as a way to gain and maintain power and control in the relationship. They break down your confidence over time by making you think your interpretation of events is incorrect. The more you second-guess yourself, the more you start to believe their version must be the accurate one.
âThere are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isnât true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.â â Soren Kierkegaard
The word is gaslighting. It has been a new one in my vocabulary over the past few years of sometimes difficult discussions with friends and family, but while the word might be new to me, the action certainly is not.
Kierkegaard was right â believing what is not true is a sure way to be fooled, but unless we know ourselves, we are as likely to be the gaslighters as we are to believe them.