SUN Behavioral Mental Health Center Publishes Blog Post Detailing The Dangers Of Gaslighting

Erlanger, Ky. — SUN Behavioral Health, a center offering mental health treatments in partnership with hospitals, doctors, and schools, has released a blog post talking about gaslighting and its negative effects on the person who is being gaslighted.

The post defines gaslighting as a form of manipulation of a person by an individual in order to gain an upper hand in a relationship. A gaslighter intends to make a person doubt themselves by feeding them lies and using their own position to cause mental agony. Gaslighting is a tool used by people who have developed an overinflated opinion of themselves, and the reason they use lies and deception is to exert dominance over another person. In some cases, gaslighters are unaware of their actions, and they have no bad intent. However, in many situations, gaslighters know what they are doing and continue doing it to give themselves the appearance of power.

The blog post then goes on to say most people who gaslight others with harmful intentions are narcissists or show narcissistic tendencies. Narcissists are most likely to gaslight others because, over time, they develop self-defense mechanisms to protect their personal image, and as they look for power in every situation, they resort to using falsehoods to elevate their position in any given social context. This is fueled by their innate desire to be admired by someone else as much as they admire themselves.

The blog post says gaslighting is very traumatic to those on the receiving end. It gives examples of some common phrases gaslighters use to belittle others. Some of the common techniques used by gaslighters to make their victims doubt themselves include creating superficial evidence to convince their victim of the lies, denying that something was said or done, dismissing their victim’s opposing feelings as invalid or “crazy,” turning the blame on their victim, questioning the intelligence of their victim, isolating their victim from outsiders, or even manipulating the victim’s physical surroundings to put doubt in their mind about the truth of something.

In abusive relationships, a gaslighter manipulates their partner to control their behavior to match their own ideal expectations. In many cases, the gaslighter will get defensive about their actions and claim they do it out of love. Gaslighting in relationships also comes with accusations of paranoia. In relationships where one person cheated, the gaslighter often will deflect and turn the blame to their partner to make the situation not reflect negatively upon themselves. Gaslighting is also used as a parenting tool by parents who want to get their children to obey. A telltale sign of gaslighting by parents or guardians is the use of playing the victim and criticizing the child or teen.

Work is also a hotbed for mental manipulation as it is usually a high-pressure environment with significant stakes for everyone involved. The blog post says the most common way a gaslighter will try to gain dominance in the workplace is by using their own story and judgment instead of facts. By creating a negative story about a peer, they gain control of the narrative and twist it to their advantage. Bosses may also gaslight by turning to demeaning language to strengthen their dominance.

The blog post from SUN Behavioral then lists a few handy strategies that can be used to determine when someone is gaslighting others. The signs include spreading blatant lies and refusing to fold even when they know they are lying, being withholding and refusing to listen to the person they are gaslighting, being in denial and claiming the victim is making things up, diverting by changing subjects or making their victim believe they are mistaken, or countering by turning defense into offense.

The blog post concludes by giving a few methods to stop gaslighters, which include leaning on those around themselves who have witnessed the damage done firsthand, creating distance between themselves and the narcissist, and finally taking one’s experiences and talking about them, preferably with professional therapists and psychiatrists.

SUN Behavioral Health is located in Erlanger, Ky., near Cincinnati. To learn more about the mental health services they offer, visit their website.