Gaslighting is more than just a buzzword—it’s a deeply disorienting form of emotional manipulation that can leave long-lasting scars on a person’s mind, heart, and even their sense of reality. You may not see the bruises on the outside, but make no mistake—gaslighting wounds the soul.

Whether it came from a partner, a parent, a boss, or even a faith community, the effects can echo throughout your life in subtle and destructive ways. Let’s unpack what gaslighting really is, how it shows up, and how you can begin to heal and reclaim your truth.

What is Gaslighting?

Gaslighting is a tactic used to make someone question their perception, memory, or sanity. It often starts small—maybe a comment like, “You’re too sensitive,” or “That never happened.” Over time, these small seeds of doubt grow into a full-blown internal crisis where you begin to mistrust your own experiences and instincts.

Gaslighting is not a disagreement. It’s a consistent, intentional (or sometimes unconscious) effort to dominate, confuse, or silence someone by distorting their reality.

How Gaslighting Impacts Your Life

1. You Lose Trust in Yourself

Gaslighting can strip away your inner compass. You may start to second-guess everything—your decisions, your emotions, even your memories. The result is chronic self-doubt. It becomes difficult to know whether your feelings are valid or if you're "overreacting," as you were often told.

This loss of self-trust is one of the most damaging effects, because it impacts every area of your life—relationships, career, faith, parenting, and even the way you talk to yourself in quiet moments.

2. You Feel Powerless and Stuck

When your reality is constantly challenged or dismissed, you can begin to feel like you have no control over your life. You may become passive, overly accommodating, or afraid to speak up. Even when something is clearly wrong, you hesitate, unsure if you're being unreasonable.

Gaslighting creates a prison without bars—a life where you’re free on the outside but internally bound by fear and confusion.

3. You Over-Apologize and Take Responsibility for Others’ Emotions

Victims of gaslighting often carry the weight of everyone else’s comfort, walking on eggshells to avoid conflict. You may apologize for things that aren’t your fault or take on guilt that was never yours to begin with. You become hyper-aware of others’ moods, often regulating yourself to keep the peace.

4. Your Nervous System Becomes Dysregulated

Emotionally, gaslighting is a form of chronic stress. It keeps your body in a prolonged state of fight, flight, or freeze. Over time, this can lead to anxiety, depression, brain fog, sleep issues, and chronic health conditions. The body remembers what the mind tries to forget. Trauma lives in your cells and can silently shape your behaviors and reactions—until it’s acknowledged and healed.

5. You Stay in Toxic Relationships Too Long

When you’ve been gaslit, it’s easy to believe the problem is you. You may stay loyal to people who continually harm you, hoping to prove your worth or win back their approval. You may internalize the lie that love must be earned, and that pain is part of the price. This belief can keep you cycling through emotionally unsafe environments, unable to leave because you don’t believe you deserve better.

6. Your Voice Feels Silenced

Perhaps the most painful impact of gaslighting is how it steals your voice. You stop sharing your truth, your needs, your boundaries. You go quiet—not because you have nothing to say, but because you’ve learned it’s safer to say nothing. And the silence can be deafening.

Healing the Invisible Wounds

The good news is this: healing is absolutely possible. But it begins with validating what you've been through—and reclaiming the truth that your feelings, your voice, and your story matter.

Here are a few powerful steps toward healing:

• Name what happened. Call it what it was. This isn’t about blame—it’s about truth. You can’t heal what you won’t name.
• Reconnect to your body. Gaslighting disconnects you from your intuition. Grounding exercises, somatic healing, and nervous system regulation tools help you learn to feel safe in your own body again.
• Work with a trauma-informed coach or therapist. You don’t have to navigate this journey alone. Safe, compassionate support can help you rebuild your confidence and learn to trust your voice again.
• Surround yourself with validating relationships. Healing happens in community. Find people who see you, hear you, and believe you. Their love helps rewrite the internal narrative that says you are “too much” or “not enough.”
• Write your story. Journaling is a powerful way to reclaim your truth. When you write the moments you once hid or minimized, you take back your power. You are no longer just a character in someone else’s narrative—you become the author of your own healing.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve been gaslit, it’s not your fault. And you are not broken.

The road back to yourself may feel uncertain—but it is paved with truth, compassion, and courage. Every time you say, “That wasn’t okay,” or “I deserve to be treated with respect,” you’re taking another step forward.

Gaslighting tried to silence you. But your healing can be louder.

You have a right to your reality.
You have a right to your voice.
And you have a right to live a life rooted in truth, safety, and self-love.

About Our Coach Megan Babcock

Click here to view Coach Megan Babcock Profile

Megan Babcock is a certified Mental Health & Trauma Transformation Coach with 23 years in healthcare and passion for equipping others to be a healing presence in the world. As the founder of It's Your Story To Tell and recipient of Oregon's Best Transformation Coach 2025, Megan blends clinical insight with compassionate care to help leaders, caregivers and advocates support others through trauma and crisis.

She believes healing begins with presence and that people feel seen, safe and supported, they can begin to transform pain into purpose. Megan is committed to helping others reclaim their story, find their voice and become a light in the darkness for those they serve.

P.S. Megan is available for speaking at events geared at transformation. If interested, respond to this email to discuss how she can support your event, organization or ministry.