Am I Gaslighting Myself? |
There are moments when distress arrives clearly, only to dissolve almost immediately. You feel hurt or unsettled, then hear a familiar internal response: Maybe you are overreacting; maybe it was not that bad; maybe you misunderstood. Within seconds, the original feeling is replaced by doubt about whether it deserved to exist at all. Many people describe this experience as “gaslighting myself.”
The phrase resonates because it captures something psychologically real: a pattern of internal self-doubt that feels imposed rather than chosen. But it also raises an important question. Gaslighting, in its original sense, is something one person does to another. So what does it mean when the undermining voice seems to come from inside?
Traditionally, gaslighting refers to an interpersonal process in which one person persistently undermines another’s confidence in their perceptions, memories, or judgment. Over time, the targeted person may begin to doubt their own reality-testing. The harm lies not just in disagreement, but in repeated invalidation that erodes self-trust.
When people talk about gaslighting themselves, they are usually not describing a........