Gaslighting Help And Therapy In Plymouth – Each day millions of people are impacted by the effects of gaslighting and other mental emotional aggressions in their relationships, and this can take a severe toll on their mental health and wellbeing. Often these individuals do not immediately recognize that they are victims of gaslighting, which can result in a failure to seek out help, thus impacting their mental recovery and ability to move on from their trauma. Fortunately, help is out there, as Horizon Plymouth has experienced counsellors ready to provide gaslighting counselling and help you to work through any mental impacts that your experiences may have had on you.
What is gaslighting?
Gaslighting is an emotional abuse tactic that is often much harder to spot as an outsider, but its effects on the recipient are no less prolific. Someone who is being gaslit has been made to feel that their emotions and even perceptions of reality are invalid or inaccurate by their abuser. The abuser then presents their own reality to the individual as the truth, insinuating that the individual is crazy or is remembering things incorrectly and needs to trust the abuser instead of their own intuition. Over time, these microaggressions build into serious emotional abuse that can cause the victim to question their perceptions of reality and become submissive to the abuser. Gaslighting in a relationship can take many forms, including:
- Minimising your opinions and devaluing your thoughts
- Distorting events so that their reality becomes the “one true reality”
- Consistently shifting the blame to you in every argument
- Forcing you to constantly make excuses for them and their behaviour, believing you are really the one at fault
- Making you feel as though nobody believes you and you are constantly imagining things
Someone who is being gaslit may experience all of these symptoms, or only a few. However, no matter how mild or severe you feel your situation is, your feelings are valid and help is available to you.
How can gaslighting affect me?
Because gaslighting is so subtle and manifests as the culmination of dozens of minor incidences calculated to invalidate the individual, someone who is being gaslight may not be able to identify a specific instance in which they felt gaslit or where they clearly recognized a problem in the relationship. This can manifest as a pervasive general feeling of unease and doubt in their own reality as the abuser quietly leverages these feelings to gain control of others. Over time, this cyclical process worsens and deepens, causing the individual to experience drastic decreases in their mental health. They may lose contact with those who were once close to them as their gaslighter gains control over their life and plants seeds of doubt in their mind about the reality of events. It is common for victims of gaslighting to have decreased self-esteem, self-confidence, and intense trust issues. Some come to believe that they actually deserved the abuse, and, in more severe cases, the individual may even develop post-traumatic stress disorder or codependency issues, making them an easier target for others in the future.
Can gaslighting help and therapy help me?
Counselling is one of the most effective ways to begin your journey to mental wellbeing after gaslighting. Because the abuse is a culmination of many slights over the course of time, having a Horizon counsellor walk you through your experiences and unpack your emotions can help you to make sense of the past and move forward to a more mentally healthy future. If you are struggling to deal with the aftereffects of prolonged exposure to gaslighting in any type of relationship, help is available by seeking out the professional services of the therapists at Horizon Plymouth. Our therapists are qualified and ready to help guide you through your experiences with gaslighting. So don’t wait, reach out to Horizon Plymouth today to schedule your initial consultation.