Some emotional abusers are particularly adept at using a technique called “gaslighting” (from a movie starring Ingrid Berman and Charles Boyer [1]
In The Gaslight Effect: How to Spot and Survive the Hidden Manipulation Others Use to Control Your Life [2]
Gaslighting is when someone wants you to do what you know you shouldn’t and to believe the unbelieveable. It can happen to you and it probably already has.
I’ve personally experienced this, the effect is very disturbing. It is especially so when the abuser makes casual matter-of-fact references to behaviors in which you never engaged and then acts incredulous that you cannot remember. It created a great deal of self-doubt in me, as if I was losing my mind from the stress of living with my ex-wife.
Not until years later, when I learned about Borderline Personality Disorder, did I realize exactly what she had been doing. So much of what abusive Borderlines and other Personality Disordered Abusers do to cause trouble is based upon skillful acting. Unfortunately, for many victims, this realization could be years in the making as it was for me. Meanwhile, one’s confidence and self-esteem are being sapped away as the abuse continues.
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Borderlines Make Great Actors
Interestingly, Valerie Porr, a BPD advocate whose daughter suffers from the illness, suggests that acting is a great career for Borderlines:
(from From Grief to Advocacy: A Mother’s Odyssey [6])
As a child I had seen a film called “Gaslight” [1]
The person suffering from borderline personality disorder, a severe and persistent mental illness, may appear completely “normal” and may often have the ability to act “as if” he or she has no problems. In fact, many people with borderline personality disorder become professional actors. This “as if” ability of people with borderline personality disorder can be particularly devastating to those who love them.
Pushing You To Silently Question Yourself
One example of gaslighting that comes to mind is a situation in which your abusive partner wants to make you believe you have been abusive and aggressive yourself, perhaps to distract from something she has done wrong. When you come home from work, you see that the rear bumper of your partner’s car is smashed in. You realize she’s had yet another car accident, something you’re used to as Borderlines often drive recklessly. But you know that if you say anything, it will provoke a nasty fight and you’re just too tired for that. So you stay quiet and just ignore your partner. But your partner can see you are angry as Borderlines are adept at reading the emotions of others, possibly because they had to learn this skill to assist at avoiding the child abuse that caused so many of them to become personality disordered.
The night passes without a fight or even a word. But the next morning, your partner tells you that she didn’t appreciate your yelling and screaming last night. She makes repeated references to what you did, perhaps even “quoting” your words. “You called me a f*cking b*tch and slapped me across the face and scratched me with your fingernails.” She might even show you red marks and bruises on her face, not telling you that it happened in the accident. To make it look good, she slapped herself to prepare to confuse you.
Of course you can remember doing none of this, yet you see the “evidence” of your actions. So you start to question whether you are losing your grip on reality or your memory is failing. This could be a particularly devastating type of abuse for older people who may already have impaired memories due to the effects of advancing age, Alzheimer’s, dementia, or other neurological problems. Yet it can happen to anybody of any age, even very physically healthy people in their teens or twenties.
Making Others Question You
An abuser who is using gaslighting on you is also likely to behave similarly with others to make them dislike you. This is a common attack used during what can become tremendously damaging distortion campaigns [7] that these abusers will use against people close to them to maintain control and a sense of superiority. Such abusers may report you to police to get you falsely arrested and perhaps prosecuted for absolutely no reason other than they want to be in control of you and how others perceive you. They are likely to make remarks to their friends, family, neighbors, and others to “prove” they are being abused, often behind your back for years until you learn what they have been doing.
Recognizing Gaslighting
Dr. Stern has developed a a list of 15 common symptoms of gaslighting that may help you to recognize you are being abused and manipulated via gaslighting.
- You constantly second-guess yourself.
- You wonder, “Am I being too sensitive?” a dozen times a day.
- You wonder frequently if you are a “good enough” girlfriend / wife / employee / friend / daughter.
- You have trouble making simple decisions.
- You think twice before bringing up innocent topics of conversation.
- You frequently make excuses for your partner’s behavior to friends and family.
- Before your partner comes home from work, you run through a checklist in your head to anticipate anything you might have done wrong that day.
- You buy clothes for yourself, furnishings for your apartment, or other personal purchases thinking about what your partner would like instead of what would make you feel great.
- You actually start to enjoy the constant criticism, because you think, “What doesn’t kill me will make me stronger.”
- You start speaking to your husband through his secretary so you don’t have to tell him things you’re afraid might upset him.
- You start lying to avoid the put-downs and reality twists.
- You feel as though you can’t do anything right.
- You frequently wonder if you’re good enough for your lover.
- Your kids start trying to protect you from being humiliated by your partner.
- You feel hopeless and joyless.
If you recognize you are engaging in more than a couple of these behaviors, it is possible that gaslighting or other emotional abuse or manipulation is the culprit. Some may point out that depression and anxiety could also explain a number of these symptoms. Yet depression and anxiety are also normal reactions to being emotionally abused and manipulated. So if these behaviors sound familiar, you owe it to yourself to learn more about emotional abuse as you may be suffering its effects and not realize it.
Overcoming the Book’s Gender Bias and Limited Advice
Several reviewers of the book have remarked that Dr. Stern still falls into the inaccurate pattern of blaming most abuse on men. Even the foreword of the book, written by Naomi Wolf [8], comments on this:
Men and women alike suffer emotional abuse and control when they are boys and girls at the hands of adults; while the majority of the example here, drawn from Dr. Stern’s practice, are about the abuse of women, I have also seen countless men open up and describe their own struggles to be free of such toxic interactions when Dr. Stern has described what she is working on — and gain a measure of release and freedom from hearing her analysis. Parents in particular should read this book: so often the ways in which we wound children’s sense of self — or manipulate them emotionally — are entirely unconscious. The more aware we become about the fact that any of us, no matter how well-intentioned, can inadvertently emotionally wound or manipulate a child in our case, the better it will be for the next generation.
Further, the book doesn’t have enough information on recovering from this kind of emotional abuse. Its strength is helping the reader recognize what is happening as it contains far more information on gaslighting than other books on personality disorders or emotional abuse.
Both of these shortcomings are the sorts of problems common with many pop-psychology books and academic tomes. Readers of books like this one can and should learn to mentally adjust what they are reading to get read of the gender bias, but the relative scarcity of clearly expressed emotional abuse problem solving tips is harder to overcome.
In my recent article Relationships and Divorces with Someone Who Suffers Borderline Personality Disorder, I mentioned Beverly Engel’s book The Emotionally Abusive Relationship: How to Stop Being Abused and How to Stop Abusing [9]
Further Resources
If you recognize BPD-like behaviors such as gaslighting in an emotionally abusive relationship, you likely will be able to benefit from the large numbers of books and resources created to help people understand BPD and find a way to deal with the abusive behaviors.
Here are a few more links to articles discussing gaslighting from one of my favorites websites called A Shrink for Men [10]:
10 Signs Your Girlfriend or Wife is an Emotional Bully [11]
10 Reasons You Can’t Communicate with a Narcissistic or Borderline Woman [12]
These links are to more general information on BPD and personality disorders that may help you deal with emotional abuse and difficult people who suffer personality disorders:
An Online Personality Disorder Test [14]
Recovering from Personality Disordered Abusive Relationships [15]
Detecting Borderline Personality Disorder to Begin Treatment [16]
Talking with a Borderline [17]
angiemedia Borderline Personality Disorder page [18]
Gaslighting: The Narcissist’s Game [19]
BPD Central – Borderline Personality Disorder Information and Support [20]
There are also a variety of excellent books available on BPD and its impact on relationships, divorces, and children. Below are a few excellent titles.
Please note that High Conflict People in Legal Disputes [23]
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33 Comments To "Borderlines Can Make You Feel Insane Via “Gaslighting”"
#1 Pingback By Relationships and Divorces with Someone Who Suffers Borderline Personality Disorder | angiEmedia On July 20, 2010 @ 10:07 pm
[…] Related to projections is the behavior known as “gaslighting” in which the Borderline tries to confuse another person into believing things that are not true. Often this is to create self-doubt. The target for this abuse can end up questioning his or her own sanity as the Borderline matter-of-factly relates “events” or “what was said” that the target does not recall because they never occurred. You can read more about this behavior in our article Borderlines Make You Feel Insane Via “Gaslighting”. […]
#2 Comment By Sad Dad On July 21, 2010 @ 11:57 pm
My ex gaslights our kids, she has them convinced any little mistakes I make are intentional. Dads, like moms, sometimes forget to buy something at the store. But I do that and she convinces them I don’t care about them.
#3 Comment By Many Sad Dad’s out there On July 22, 2010 @ 2:53 am
[24]
We hear you loud and clear.
Statistics clearly show that Fathers are far more responsible when it pertains to steering clear of any negative language regarding the mother whilst kids are in earshot.
Numerous books I’ve read also allude that mother’s can’t seem to “get over it”, and move on with their lives. Instead, they slander the father directly in front of the children, causing life-long problems for the soon to be adults. A small percentage of fathers do this also, but it is far more common with mothers.
And fathers typically get the shaft from family law judges. Mostly panty-waist, politically correct types of judges. They are the worst, and also are what is wrong with America today.
#4 Comment By shattered On August 1, 2010 @ 7:31 am
We’ve been apart as long as we were together, & I’m still hurting. It’s amazing how this experience has galvanized me, but I refuse to succumb to it. I don’t mind hurting, but I will not crawl back. She is the meanest person I have ever come into contact with.
#5 Pingback By PDA Spam Attack on Shrink4Men Hints at Cyberwarfare Style Distortion Campaigns | angiEmedia On August 6, 2010 @ 8:19 am
[…] abusers themselves, but it is going to cost a lot of misery and heartache to do it.Further ReadingBorderlines Can Make You Feel Insane Via “Gaslighting”Relationships and Divorces with Someone Who Suffers Borderline Personality DisorderPersonality […]
#6 Pingback By Escaping Sociopathic Abuse Almost Impossible When Children Are Involved | angiEmedia On August 20, 2010 @ 5:33 am
[…] ReadingRelationships and Divorces with Someone Who Suffers Borderline Personality DisorderBorderlines Can Make You Feel Insane Via “Gaslighting”Co-parenting With A Sociopath (Borderline, Narcissist, etc.)Personality Disordered Abusers in Family […]
#7 Pingback By What is the Cost of BPD to Society? | angiEmedia On September 23, 2010 @ 2:10 am
[…] ReadingRelationships and Divorces with Someone Who Suffers Borderline Personality DisorderBorderlines Make You Feel Insane Via “Gaslighting”Borderline Mom: Emotional Self Defense for ChildrenRecovering from Personality Disordered Abusive […]
#8 Pingback By BPD Distortion Campaigns | angiEmedia On September 23, 2010 @ 2:15 am
[…] does not recall because they never occurred. You can read more about this behavior in our article Borderlines Can Make You Feel Insane Via “Gaslighting”. If you realize that the Borderline in your life is engaging in gaslighting against you, this is […]
#9 Pingback By Talking with a Borderline | angiEmedia On September 25, 2010 @ 2:56 am
[…] yourself:Relationships and Divorces with Someone Who Suffers Borderline Personality Disorder Borderlines Can Make You Feel Insane Via “Gaslighting” Co-parenting With A Sociopath (Borderline, Narcissist, etc.) Personality Disordered Abusers in […]
#10 Comment By Cindy On September 13, 2011 @ 5:30 pm
I’m finding that my soon ex- has done years of distortion campaigns, my daughter and youngest son appear to have ubherited his family illness. Believe me they had me all over the place. My daughter faked a full term pregnancy ending it in a fake stillbirth she could not hide from. One goes to the hospital for this. My sister has apparently listened for years of distortion campaigns; my brother told me this year that he had witnessed it for himself but did not want to tell me this from years ago, he didn’t want to cause trouble. Along with that, it was my son’s psychiatrist that said Borderlines make excellent actors, all three fit the bill. I had no idea my daughter had been lying about me to my mom at the small age she was, she had come to me a few years ago laughing at how she manipulated my mom saying to her I and my husband had been hurting her. I had wondered at odd reactions from family and friends even. Friends reacting badly to me that once were great friends I would find out if any brave enough Dave was giving false statements of me. He had followed me from church to church to church. As soon as I started making friends, he would then go in and continue with his disinformation campaigns. I did not realize why, I gave the excuse that he just did not understand. I could not deal with the fact that, yes, he did know exactly what he was doing. Having always grabbed her daddy’s legs she learned what worked so she used it. My youngest son has this with the histrionic kind. It’s been the most devaststing year. I knew I had to leave and when I told my husband I was leaving him, even though he had a mistress, he brought his truck right back saying he had called the police and the kids saying that he told Jeremiah that I had wanted to commit suicide. He came storming in the house having said that and this: “Me and the kids we’ll decide just what to do with you.” I had been in contact with a counselor for having terrible pain and sickness, he was teaching me to stand up for myself, I was doing that and my husband felt threatened in losing control of me because his secrets could get out. The emergency counselor he knew I was meeting with because the pain physically had been so horrible, but then my husband’s abuse of me got so much, much, worse. He was screaming in my face the last three weeks, told a doctor that he did not know what was wrong but that I had deteriorated in the last 3 weeks for some reason. Instead of ending up at a pain control clinic he socked me away in a mental hospital that many agree needs to be closed down. I was misquoted there many, many times. With a diagnosis my counselor feels were used to get paid was used because the would not get paid with the crisis I was having as anyone would, in only calling it adjustment disorder, which means a crisis caused by outside stressors. He’s managed to completely isolate me trying to run me out of town even placing his mistress in my place without a flinch, and tightly with my sister as well. I beg God to reveal the lies.
#11 Pingback By How and Why Psycho Parents Manipulate Kids to Resist Custody Exchanges | angiEmedia On March 14, 2012 @ 4:15 am
[…] do about them.To get started on this introspection, two past articles that I recommend for you are:Borderlines Can Make You Feel Insane Via “Gaslighting”Relationships and Divorces with Someone Who Suffers Borderline Personality DisorderIf you can better […]
#12 Comment By cuatezon On May 7, 2012 @ 1:45 am
Sweet Jesus I thought I was crazy for years and reading this stuff confirms it wasn’t me, it was she who was the crazy one. My ex-wife would incessantly accuse me of looking at women in the store, restaurant, driving the car, at the car wash, walking the dog, etc. In her melodramatic accusations, she actually ended up pointing out attractive-looking women to me that I hadn’t noticed before…and I later found out SHE was the one who was emailing some ex-bf of hers in secret, and they swapped a calling card so her calls to him wouldn’t appear on our long distance phone bill. Once, when we were in the middle of an argument (about me staring at women in the mall) she laid down in the bed and began masturbating. Gosh, how did I ever get involved with such a psycho bitch. Why do these people exist…thank goodness I’m free. Just feel for the poor kids now.
#13 Pingback By Gaslighting | Nyssa's Hobbit Hole On March 20, 2013 @ 2:10 am
[…] Gaslighting Ambient Abuse and Gaslighting Borderlines Making you Feel Insane via Gaslighting This entry was posted in abuse, gaslighting on August 17, 2012 by […]
#14 Comment By Jason On April 22, 2013 @ 10:19 pm
Is there a term for reverse Gaslighting? I not only have a good memory, I started keeping a journal because of what my ex would do. In short, my ex would do or say something and then later deny it had happened or that she’d said anything about it. Sometimes she would do this within minutes!
During one argument late in the marriage, I asked her why she’d done a very traumatic thing to me eight years earlier. She remembered it differently, but said she didn’t know. However, she remembered word-for-word something she said to our oldest a few weeks later (our oldest later independently, and without prompting, related the same story with the same quote.)
A few months my ex not only denied the event happened but that we’d even discussed it. She actually told me I was imagining both the event and conversation. Between that and her extreme demonization of me to family and friends, I began to lose my grip on reality.
Fortunately, she pulled this stunt in front of our marriage counselor, who, ironically, my ex had been winning over. I saw the epiphany in our counselor’s face–I wasn’t the sick one. I believe this was one of the more extreme case our counselor had seen and she struggled with it. She believed my ex’s ability to disassociate had gotten so bad, she was basically doing it in real time.
My other source of sanity is that my ex did the same thing with our oldest two, though pertaining to insanely trivial things. Just two months ago, my ex said something to our oldest daughter and five minutes denied saying it and accused her of making it up just to win the argument. The dumb part is that it had nothing to do with winning or losing an argument. Needless to say, our oldest two children thing their mother is nuts.
(As a side note; I can’t recall my ex ever gaslighting me in the traditional manner. She would tell terrible lies to our children and other people about me and would deny doing so when I confronted her, even when I had the emails! Her response; “I don’t remember writing that.”)
#15 Pingback By Gaslighting | Nyssa's Hobbit Hole On August 9, 2013 @ 3:12 am
[…] Gaslighting Ambient Abuse and Gaslighting Borderlines Making you Feel Insane via Gaslighting My story of narcissistic abuse is here and here. My college memoirs (incl. stories of Peter, Shawn […]
#16 Pingback By Tracy's Abuse Turns on Me–Full Story of Richard and Tracy's Bullying: Part 4 | Nyssa's Hobbit Hole On August 9, 2013 @ 3:16 am
[…] or abuses me), knowing there was plenty of blame to go around, to them as well as to me, but the gaslighting still affected me, making me doubt my own eyes and ears. It felt as if they wanted me to think I […]
#17 Comment By meh On August 12, 2013 @ 5:23 pm
You might want to consider stop writing as if it was always a “she”. I’ve been under years of verbal abuse by my boyfriend and I would never had found out what was going on had it not been for my therapist detecting it and explaining it to me. Stigmatizing BPD as a “female thing” does not help those of us who have to deal with men who are this way.
#18 Pingback By Their doublespeak and double standards–Tracy's Reign of Terror: True Story of Narcissism, Bullying, Domestic Violence and Child Abuse, Part 19 | Nyssa's Hobbit Hole On January 22, 2014 @ 5:39 am
[…] or abuses me), knowing there was plenty of blame to go around, to them as well as to me. But the gaslighting still affected me, making me doubt my own eyes and […]
#19 Comment By Gas Lighted On March 30, 2014 @ 3:36 am
I tell ya this article brought me to tears. I’m still in my divorce and have experienced all this behaviour. It happens to both men and women and I really don’t understand why LCSWs, Marriage counselors and Psy.ds don’t consider that this is going on in a marriage. How can these people define these personality types and then casually and so subjectively presume to be helping couples.
#20 Pingback By what is "gaslighting"? – SoberRecovery : Alcoholism Drug Addiction Help and Information On May 2, 2014 @ 12:41 pm
[…] To Deal With . . . list. ======== Gaslighting – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ============= Borderlines Can Make You Feel Insane Via “Gaslighting” | angiEmedia __________________ . Daily Checklist. Prayed Up? Check. Working the Program? Check. Asyptotically […]
#21 Pingback By Borderline Personality Disorder | Nyssa's Hobbit Hole On May 6, 2014 @ 6:50 pm
[…] a Borderline or Narcissistic Woman Relationships with Borderline/Narcissistic Personality Women Borderlines making you insane via gaslighting There is no closure with a narcissistic or borderline woman Cluster B Personality Disordered […]
#22 Comment By Life-Is-Ducky (C. Bates) On December 27, 2014 @ 4:38 pm
Wow, I can relate to every comment.
I was with the absolute sickest man and he suckered me in at the beginning because I am a good and sympathetic person who wanted to help him (Note to self, he offered to put money in an account if I would stay with him because I was afraid things would not work out-hello? Next time take it and run!)
What blows my mind is that his mother was very mentally ill and ultimately died of Alzheimers. And the same mental illness manifested itself in him yet his father, brother and extended family are wonderful people. The saddest thing to realize is that both of his kids have mental issues. His adult daughter has serious problems regulating her emotions and still has tantrums in her mid 30’s. The son is a whole different ball game. While his father is a textbook BPD, the son is a textbook NPD on steroids! He is a compulsive gambler who lies, cheats and steals constantly. I would not put my pocketbook down near him. From the moment I met him I felt something weird about this kid (of 36). He cannot look you in the eyes and wears his hat on backwards as a sign that he is tough. Inside he is a tormented sick puppy who cries for help but just gets enabling instead. His father could help him by getting him to a financial planner and shrink, but he doesn’t want the kid to succeed so he will always be dependent on him. How twisted and sick!
Now that I am away from the malignant situation and able to connect the dots I’m horrified. Not just to know that there was never true love in the relationship and I was only used until painted black due to trying to put boundaries in place, but to observe that these mental illnesses run so deep.
The Cluster B’s all take turns cluster XXXXing each other’s heads! The daughter goes psycho on Dad, then squirms in his lap while talking baby talk, and then he writes a check (yuck, really)
At the same time she bad mouths her brother because he manipulates Dad into paying his bills because he is totally irresponsible in supporting himself, his Bipolar wife and the 2 anchor babies she tricked him into having. Then the NPD son has the father in a Stockholm situation which is carried up through using subliminal language patterning and constant text messaging to which the father responds to every ‘problem’ and drama situation with sympathy. So much so that he would lie to his son and say we were having problems or that I was giving him the silent treatment when all was fine. So when the son would text away about his constant problems (some real, some made up to get money) the father would text back lies just to be in as cool and a ‘bud’ with his son. Being that the father is antisocial and has no friends, just his dogs and 2 kids-he’d do anything and say anything in desperation to make sure they don’t abandon him. And any other people (as in the current woman in his life and all those women before her) are just collateral damage. They all play with her like a cat toy. If she does not continue to allow the abuse he will ‘kick her black’ and out she goes-probably with the clothes on her back, and she may even agree to this in order to save her sanity or for risk of ending up with a false police record.
Add these two dysfunctional train wrecks to the crazy father’s life with his lies, confabulations and constant gaslighting and I don’t know how I survived not being locked up in an institution.
At times I have acted just like all 3 because these Cluster B types make their victims so crazy that they end up forcing them to explain or defend themselves in ways that make them look like the crazy one.
One of the worst problems with mental illness that is passed on genetically and also by environment (learned behaviors). Unless someone in the family will get off the crazy train and seek help it just goes on and on and on.
I vomited the first time I saw the Narc son throw his then less than a year daughter under the bus. He has had her dancing on videos which he sends to Grandpa via cell phone and she is chanting whatever it is she wants (actually what he wants). I have quietly watched as he slowly began to use his now instant family members (shotgun wedding wife and 2 kids) to extract money from his father using lies and by gaining his sympathy. The father is so mentally ill and disordered he cannot see the games and just keeps enabling and giving, so much so that he thinks this is a normal way of life. When I asked him why he did this he replied “Because if I give they will always come back”. (Yikes, my kid is grown up, well educated and totally responsible for himself and more than 10 years younger). The son is even able to recycle the lies any normal person would question. How many times can he twist his stories about not having money for diapers, car payments and food and the reasons why he is broke, yet continue to brag about gambling, the fancy places they eat out and the Baby Momma’s shopping trips (at a year the little girl’s favorite place to visit was “the mall”). Daddy Warbucks sees nothing wrong with any of the behaviors his kids toss his way. Not my problem anymore, but I still have to remind myself that what I was a part of and witnessed was real.
The triangulation and dynamics are so sick. I am mid 50’s and never knew anything like this ever existing until about 5 years ago. I started to see ‘weirdness’ in my SO right away but it took me a while to recognize what was going on in the immediate family dynamics and when I did I was already in deep. He made sure that I was financially dependent on him and remained isolated from family, friends, more education and career advancement.
The father is so mentally ill that he cannot hang on to any relationship, it’s basically over when it starts but instead of get help he will bring in his kids in to drive his SO crazy and then he can turn around and blame everything on her. The kids have a blast and they are so money focused (I was not, but he objectified me with expensive things which further p1ss@d them off) that they are concerned about their inheritance so they want Daddy to have a slave, but when the slave catches on and speaks out they all assist in doing away with her. They never lifted one finger to help him when he was sick or needed something but they have no problem trying to label you as a Golddigger instead of the servant and slave you actually are.
In the end my SO could not handle my moving out (I was waiting for an apartment to become available about 6 weeks) and called the police. Not only did he call the cops to have me removed, he called his Narc son to watch the whole event. He actually planned this and timed it perfectly. What a fine family! The only thing I can compare this to is a hungry tiger Dad teaching his baby tiger son how to hunt.
As Daddy teaches his already very mentally ill son more tricks, the son is torturing his BiPolar wife by using every method available in his arsenal of tricks. Another twisted and sad dynamic-this girl with bipolar disorder who really is sweet thought trapping this Narc was the way to solve her approaching 30 and no husband problem, yet she too fell right into the family freak show. Whereas I can climb out and slowly recover, she has no chance because she already struggles with her own issues. That said, I’ve read that sometimes two people can stay married because they are so messed up that they are able to make it last. I don’t know how that works and don’t care, but what I do know sadly is that the two little grandchildren on the son’s side do not have a chance at escaping the mental illness gene as it runs deep in the families of both parents.
Since tossing me 4 months ago the BPD Ex has continued the push-me-pull-you and gaslighting games. He got a lawyer so I had to get one. Of course he moved someone else right in-good luck to this poor victim. In a way I am glad because it stopped him from hoovering and in retrospect he still would probably control me by hanging on to my stuff whether we were friendly (as we had been for a couple of months) only he would be able to mess with my head more in realtime.
This sick man had guns which concerns me.
I cannot believe people like this walk among us undetected and can get a license to carry a firearm as well. Heck, I really don’t care if he wants to off himself at this point, but I hope he doesn’t take anyone else with him.
Those that wrote about going to counseling with one of these Cluster B’s, forget it. They have to admit they have a problem and sign some type of contract stating they will get help. Otherwise they just keep learning and getting better at what they do. (In my case he was a divorce lawyer and also worked with abuse victims at one time). So you potentially spend all this time in therapy and start to feel better thinking that there is hope for things to improve and suddenly realize they will take everything you’ve ever told them (even things in confidence at the inception of your relationship) and use it against you in therapy.
I think the best thing is to go No Contact with these types. If you are married, get out for the sake of your sanity. If you have kids then at least your kids will have ‘some normal’ when they are with you. Try to compensate for the mental illness crazymaking by exposing your kids to good things like an appreciation for the environment (gardening), music, art, academics, sports-some constructive activities. This is especially important because you can instill in them that they do not have to depend on other people for happiness, whereas these sick Cluster B’s cannot be alone.
If you give your kids this gift then they may be less likely to have their sick parent’s traits take over as they mature. They will no doubt see their ‘sick parent’ go through endless stormy relationships and even marriages, but if you keep them focused on positive things which they enjoy it will lessen their exposure to the mental illness side of their heritage and genetics.
As the Grateful Dead said “What a long strange trip it’s been”.
Wishing you all the best in recovery mode.
#23 Comment By Pazuzu On February 3, 2015 @ 9:40 pm
Why is it that every Gaslighting article I find is female biased? Women do this just as much as men do. Getting pretty tired of women that are treated well, who are victims because things are not going their way..
#24 Comment By Bates Motel Evacuee On June 29, 2015 @ 3:57 pm
We are watching an acquaintance currently gaslight an old crush he had on in high school. He’s a really messed up comic book writer who is 50 years old and loves with his mom, never married, and has decided that the best way to get attention in life is to play perma-victim and is exaggerating his suicidal tendencies to get attention. He reconnected with this high school crush, a girl-now married middle aged woman with kids and is using his comic strips in a super creepy fashion. He’s got his comic character attempting a suicide with her (using her real name) rescuing him at the last minute, her falling her over herself in his fantasy hospital bed, with guilt and remorse for not recognizing his depression and saying how she loves him and will never leave him again. He is currently barraging her with these cartoons, books and playing the long game of trying to break up her marriage. I know this because he’s tried to do this before on other friends of mine with mixed success.
#25 Pingback By The Social Dimensions of Gaslighting | Ethics Beyond Compliance On September 14, 2015 @ 10:51 am
[…] blog on AngieMedia (attributed only to Rob) describes how far abusers sometimes go: “An abuser who is using […]
#26 Pingback By This is how it really ended (An explanation for the Dead “Love” Collection) | Beyond the Barbed Wire On December 18, 2015 @ 4:22 pm
[…] was one of the most crazy-making things he did to me, one of the most pronounced ways in which his emotional abusiveness played out. It was the most frustrating and difficult thing to pin down. For the longest time, I […]
#27 Comment By mjsquatch On February 7, 2017 @ 11:05 pm
Yet another person going through a custody battle with a disordered spouse. I won’t go into the details, but it’s been horrible before and after the split. I questioned my own sanity as my home life became more and chaotic. The children were displaying horrible behaviors (school refusal, physical violence toward me, and general antisocial tendencies) What led to the split was my finding out that she had been portraying me as an abuser to my children (found text messages between her and my daughter in college). It is no wonder the children had grown so out of control, she has been grooming them to completely disrespect me, which I’m sure has poisoned all respect for authority figures at school.
As the years progressed she had started to escalate severe controlling behaviors about the parenting. She would angrily confront me when I tried to deal with serious discipline issues. She also began calling the police on me when I got upset at the constant chaos, escalating this more and more frequently. I was even taken out of the hose for psychiatric observation in handcuffs once after my child had punched me square in the face. However, until I saw those messages I allowed myself to go along with this insanity, constantly questioning myself and how I could be a better person and react to all of this without so much anxiety. I tried everything, counseling, medication, meditation, etc., with little reciprocal effort.
I couldn’t break free of this mentality until I finally learned there was a campaign against me behind my own back. I initially left town (a big mistake legally) to visit my parents when I got this information, and got a leave of absence from work. When it was time to return I told her I was coming back to the house because I pay the mortgage and had every right to be there, while we could not afford another apartment. Her parents lived in town and I even offered to stay in their basement while we worked things out if she refused to leave the house and go there herself.
Anyway, that’s when she slapped on the restraining order (I’ve never hit anyone in that house). The last three months have now been a living hell of high conflict provocative indirect interactions. Her unique twist on trying to humiliate me is to insist that all my custodial visits be supervised by my mother. She’s actually fine with the visits being a week or more if she can dig at me with that stipulation, but she is trying to fight like hell in court from me having any unsupervised time of my own. There is much more, but I’ll stop there.
I’m still having trouble recovering from this psychologically. It’s liberating being away from the abuse, but I miss my family so much. I am also heartbroken to see the children’s behavioral problems deepen without anything I can do in the short term to help. This is in addition to the stigma of being labeled an abuser. I am trying to stay strong, but I don’t know if I can continue to function normally in my daily life at work.
#28 Comment By Marjama On June 15, 2017 @ 1:17 pm
Can the same scenario as mentioned above occur between boss and employee?
#29 Comment By Multimir On January 27, 2018 @ 9:47 am
It is very important to mention “unconscious gasligting” or “shadow gasligting” when abuser did not realise what he/she is doing. And is acting in much mor subtle way, surrounging victim with all type of chaos, lack of normal support, lack of appreciation, ignoring or denying sucesses etc. Literally everytiing witch slowly sufocates confidence of (and this is important) your subsconcious ming. All with the same effect from various anxieties to depressions or worse.
Skills of gaslighters in that case are showing as a very good evil psychologist. To recognize unconscious gasligting you have to understand statistics of results of unconsciour abuser behavior. If abuser main course of action can be spotet as socially negative red light should go on.
#30 Comment By Aina flowers On April 23, 2018 @ 8:54 am
This is fucking cruel. I am a borderline my brother was it caused him to end his life but there are two types of bpd quiet and classic and quiet borderline are the opposite in actions instead of outwardly intentional pain we are so emotionally broken we do it to ourselves subconsciously and are opposite of antisocial personality
This is damaging and cruel yo I’ve been gaslighted by classic bpds and non bpd.
#31 Comment By tara o’dwyer On June 10, 2018 @ 3:19 am
what the hell is this? It’s almost as if you’ve just randomly thrown in references to BPD in an article by gaslighting to be spiteful. No, BPDS are NOT skilled at manipulation, or gaslighting. Research done on BPDS shows impairment in areas such as emotional control, impulse control, memory and concentration. These are at odds with the hallmarks of master manipulation. BPDS are NOT skilful actors! My lord, have you ever done any proper, impartial research on the disorder? There’s a reason it’s a DISORDER. BPDS simply do not posses the brain functions to be master manipulators-the opposite is true.
BPDS are in constant and extreme emotional pain due to the inability to regulate their feelings, (Yes, there is science behind this) and this so called ‘gaslighting’ behaviour you see, is a (generally untreated) BPD’s disorganised way of managing them. The ‘acting’ is a result of simply having no identity, and constantly trying to search for one. All these behaviours are authentic in the mind of the BPD, and reflect their feelings at the time, and does not feel like acting, at all. I understand that it is not easy to live with a BPD sufferer, but by dismissing their experience you are adding stigma to the illness, a stigma that has deterred many from seeking help. Please do a bit of research on the brain of a bPD sufferer, as it is radically different from the ‘average’ person.
#32 Comment By maddy On December 8, 2019 @ 10:42 pm
[25]
haha save your face. see how its poor me, a victim mentality? bpd people are victims for sure but they sure aren’t innocent.
#33 Comment By Kathryn On June 30, 2020 @ 1:34 pm
Not all of us with bpd gaslight. Please don’t throw all of us under the bus as manipulative and heartless just because you had a bad experience. Some of us are still good people who fight every day to keep our problems to ourselves and not burden anyone else.