There are few phrases more damaging to a trauma survivor than this one:
“You’re imagining things.”
“You’re too sensitive.”
“You’re overthinking it.”
“It’s all in your head.”
And the worst part? If you’ve lived through emotional manipulation, hearing this again—even in a new context—can make your reality start to dissolve. Your thoughts race. Your chest tightens. You feel that old familiar panic: “Is it me? Am I really the problem? Am I going mad?”
Let’s pause right there.
You are not going crazy.
What you’re experiencing is the fallout of gaslighting—and your brain and body are doing exactly what they were trained to do.
🔥 1. Gaslighting Leaves Invisible Scars
When someone repeatedly invalidates your feelings, questions your memory, or rewrites reality to make you doubt yourself, it’s called gaslighting. It’s not just emotional manipulation—it’s psychological abuse.
And if you’ve lived in that environment for a long time, you begin to internalize a terrifying belief:
“I can’t trust myself.”
That belief doesn’t just fade with time. It lingers in the nervous system. So when someone new says something similar—even casually—it can ignite a trauma response.
🧠2. The Brain After Abuse Can Struggle to Trust Itself
After emotional trauma, the prefrontal cortex (logic and reasoning) and the amygdala (fear and threat detector) can become out of sync.
- The amygdala screams: “You’re in danger again! Something’s off!”
- But your prefrontal cortex has been conditioned to override those signals and say: “Maybe I’m overreacting. Maybe it really is just me…”
That inner conflict can lead to cognitive dissonance—a state where your brain is battling two opposing realities at once. It’s mentally and emotionally exhausting.
You’re not losing your mind.
You’re reacting to an old wound being re-opened.
đź’” 3. Emotional Abuse Trains You to Doubt Reality
If you’ve been told for years that your feelings are “dramatic” or your memories “inaccurate,” your natural response is to begin doubting yourself. You may:
- Apologize for things you didn’t do
- Second-guess your reactions
- Ask friends if your perspective is valid
- Feel guilty just for setting a boundary
This is not a sign that you’re irrational. It’s a survival mechanism. Your brain learned to stay safe by abandoning your own truth.
But now? That truth is knocking again. Loudly.
🪞 4. If You’re Asking “Am I Going Crazy?” You’re Probably Not
Here’s the paradox:
Truly unstable people don’t question their sanity.
But self-aware survivors of abuse often do—because their sense of self was constantly undermined.
So if you’re wondering, “Is it me?”, there’s a very good chance it’s not.
It’s a signal that your body is remembering. That your nervous system has been here before. That something feels off—and that matters.
🌱 5. How to Anchor Yourself Back Into Reality
When your mind starts to spiral, try these grounding truths:
✅ “I trust my body’s warning signs. They kept me alive.”
✅ “My feelings are not too much. They’re information.”
✅ “I have a right to my version of reality—even if someone else disagrees.”
✅ “Being gaslit doesn’t mean I’m broken. It means I need to come home to myself.”
✨ Final Thought: You’re Not Losing Your Mind. You’re Reclaiming It.
What feels like “crazy” is often just clarity finally pushing through the fog.
The fog of years of manipulation. The fog of self-abandonment. The fog of being told to question your own truth.
You are not unstable.
You are waking up.
And next time someone tries to make you doubt what you feel—pause. Breathe. Ask yourself:
“Is this really about me? Or is this the echo of an old pattern trying to repeat itself?”
Your clarity is not a problem.
It’s your power.
💬 Has someone ever made you feel like it was “all in your head”?
You’re not alone. Drop a 💛 in the comments if you’ve been there—and are learning to trust your truth again.
#GaslightingAwareness #YouAreNotCrazy #EmotionalAbuseRecovery #TrustYourselfAgain #NeurobiologyOfTrauma #SelfValidation #HealingAfterAbuse #ComplexTrauma #PostTraumaticGrowth #YouAreWakingUp
