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Sep 18, 2024 · Gaslighting is a manipulation technique that causes you to reconsider your own reality as potentially untrue. It occurs when someone gives you false information, tells you what you know is incorrect, and continues to do both things until you are no longer sure what's real and what's not.
Feb 23, 2024 · Gaslighting occurs in toxic, unhealthy relationships, and psychologists highlight these common phrases as red flags to further emotional trauma.
- Gaslighting
- Traumatized
- Triggered
- Narcissist
- Love-Bombing
- Toxic
- Grooming
- Trauma-Bond
- Antisocial
- Trauma-Dumping
Perhaps the most often misconstrued word of the past few years, “gaslighting” has been widely adopted as a way to describe any act that’s insensitive, a lie, or simply a difference of opinion. “I hear it all the time,” says Elisa Martinez, a psychotherapist based in California. “People often use it in this accusatory way—maybe the person who’s ‘gas...
You tripped and fell in front of a bunch of people? How traumatizing! But therapists would prefer you use a more precise term, like embarrassing, mortifying, shocking, or upsetting. Trauma is “a serious, often chronic physiological disruption of the nervous system,” Martinez says. People with posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD), for example, can ex...
The word “triggered” has become a common way to express feeling offended or shocked. (A recent search on Reddit revealed that people were triggered by a celebrity’s red-carpet dress, slow walkers, and a bad scene in an animated movie.) In its truest sense, however, being triggered means encountering a reminder of a traumatic experience, followed by...
One of the internet’s favorite diagnoses is that someone is a narcissist—which has become shorthand for anyone who appears self-centered or entitled. The term is “thrown around so carelessly,” says Jacquelyn Tenaglia, a licensed mental health counselor based in Boston. “I see narcissism being especially misapplied when it’s used to label someone wh...
Say two people are newly dating, and one is lavishing the other with gifts and compliments. When someone makes grand gestures to the object of their affection, bystanders can be quick to call it “love-bombing”—though actually, it could be totally normal excitement. “Love-bombing is inundating somebody with love and affection, either to make up for ...
People tend to attach “toxic” to anything or anyone they find upsetting. (Your boss is toxic, the barista who makes you wait 15 minutes is toxic, that pop star’s fandom is definitely toxic.) But Torres-Mackie prefers to use it to describe truly abusive situations in which someone intentionally causes harm. “If somebody in your life causes severe em...
Some politicians use this term—inaccurately and dangerously—to spread anti-LGBTQ misinformation, which then circulates on social media. It’s also misused elsewhere online. People on the internet have started declaring that any older person dating a younger one is “grooming” them. But determining if that’s the case requires more nuance than a comput...
People often assume that trauma-bonding “is when two people share with each other their experiences of trauma, and that brings them closer,” Torres-Mackie says. Having a word to describe such scenarios would be helpful—but it’s not this one. According to mental-health experts, trauma-bonding actually refers to the connection or attachment between a...
Don’t feel like going to a party? Fair, but it would probably be incorrect to label yourself “antisocial.” The term is often colloquially used to indicate a lack of desire to be around other people, but it actually refers to a personality disorderassociated with repeatedly disregarding and violating the rights of others. “It’s marked by criminal be...
A good venting session is lots of things: affirming, a relief, the way two people might bond. But pouring your heart out to a friend about all the hard things you’re dealing with isn’t necessarily “trauma-dumping”—a term popularized on TikTok. The actual definition of this trendy term is “sharing specific details about a traumatic experience with s...
Nov 28, 2023 · Gaslighting is an abusive tactic aimed to make a person doubt their own thoughts and feelings. The abuse is often subtle at first. For example, if a person is telling a story, the abuser may...
Nov 14, 2018 · It's not just someone lying once in a while, or saying, "I don't like what you're wearing" once in a while. It's an amalgam of behaviors that together are very indicative of abusive...
Feb 4, 2021 · One common but infuriating tactic of narcissists is that they suddenly act like everything is fine after a big fight, blow up, or significant abuse on their part. How do you deal with a narcissist pretending nothing happened? The first step is to keep your cool and refrain from reminding or convincing the narcissist.
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Oct 21, 2021 · There are some signs that may help you identify if the person in your life genuinely doesn’t care or if they don’t have the emotional capacity. But there are steps you can take today — for ...
