What does gaslighting accomplish?

It’s a manipulation tactic that is very effective if used correctly.

Unsplash Severin Hoin

And the ones that use it, have done it for years and it works for them. So they get better and better as the years go on.

The abuser accomplishes….

• Control: They will beat you into submission until you don’t know which way is up or down.
• Lack of self responsibility: They are incapable of truly accepting responsibility for their abuse, so they make the victim feel like the abuser, and they’re damn good at it.
• Denial: Helps the abuser stay in a never end state of “not me.”
• Delusion: It’s fascinating to sit back and observe once you are aware. The level of delusion is unimaginable unless you go through it. It will even baffle the most aware.
• Confusion: It leaves the victim questioning the most mundane shit in life. And it will even have your closest friends and family confused as you try and explain the insanity to them, when you really have no idea what you are trying to explain.
• Alienate: It’s all you! Don’t you know that? It will leave you alone, broken and on the brink of insanity while you run people off that don’t “understand.”

So, what’s it accomplish? Exactly what it’s set out to do. Make you question your reality, and blame and question yourself. While the abuser looks like the Saint and you look like the psychotic villain.

But once you are aware of what is going on, you will never be gaslit again.