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Gaslighting Quotes
Being gaslit can cause you to question your reality, but reading gaslighting quotes can ensure that what you’ve experienced is very real.
Whether your partner, parent, sibling, another family member, friend, or workplace is gaslighting you, these quotes about being gaslighted can help you heal.
WHAT IS GASLIGHTING?
Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse that typically happens in romantic relationships, but it can also happen throughout families, friendships, and your workspace.
More specifically, gaslighting is psychological manipulation that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, and memories.
This leads the victim to experience a loss of confidence and self-esteem.
They feel an uncertainty about their emotional or mental stability.
And they often also form a dependency attachment to the perpetrator.
Examples of Gaslighting Phrases ⤵️
💔 “You’re being paranoid.”
💔 “That never happened.”
💔 “You’re overreacting.”
Sometimes gaslighting is passed from generation to generation, and it can be vital to do inner child healing to break this chain.
Speaking of healing your inner child, have you downloaded your free inner child healing workbook yet? 👇
50 Gaslighting Quotes
Want to skip ahead?
✨ Defining Gaslighting Quotes
✨ Gaslighting in Relationships Quotes
✨ Gaslighting by Parents and Families Quotes
✨ Gaslighting and Manipulation Quotes
✨ Quotes About Being Gaslit
✨ Recovering From Gaslighting Quotes
👉 If you’re looking for quotes about healing your inner child, head over here: 70 Healing Inner Child Quotes (to Help Overcome Childhood Trauma)
Defining Gaslighting Quotes:
1. “Gaslighting qualifies as a form of emotional abuse that involves denying a person’s experience and making statements, such as “that never happened,” “you’re too sensitive,” or “this isn’t that big a deal.” ― Ramani Durvasula (Should I Stay or Should I Go?: Surviving a Relationship with a Narcissist)
2. “Gaslighting are lies with a purpose to confuse and control.” ― Tracy Malone
3. “In terms of gaslighting, I define it as ‘to implant false and/or distorted narratives that are specially designed or formulated to manipulate a person into a destructive web of deception, loss of control, and the surrender of personal freedom and beliefs of self-worth, self-value, self-esteem, and productivity.'” ― Ross Rosenberg
4. “Gaslighting is a subtle form of emotional manipulation that often results in the recipient doubting their own perception of reality and their sanity. In addition, gaslighting is a method of manipulation by toxic people to gain power over you. The worst part about gaslighting is that it undermines your self-worth to the point where you’re second-guessing everything.” ― Dana Arcuri (Certified Trauma Recovery Coach, Soul Rescue: How to Break Free From Narcissistic Abuse & Heal Trauma)
5. “Gaslighting is mind control to make victims doubt their reality.” ― Tracy Malone
6. “Gaslighting can only work if the victim is manipulated into a covenant of secrecy. Such is implemented when the victim is convinced that the outside world, or formerly trusted people, have a vested interest in hurting them.” ― Ross Rosenberg
7. “Emotional abuse is designed to undermine another’s sense of self. It is deliberate humiliation, with the intent to seize control of how others feel about themselves.” ― Lorraine Nilon (Breaking Free From the Chains of Silence: A respectful exploration into the ramifications of abuse hidden behind closed doors)
8. “The aim of gaslighting is to make you feel bad about something you need not feel bad about. Gaslighting is emotional abuse… happens in the real world and on social media, too.” ― Vikram Karve
Gaslighting in Relationships Quotes:
9. “Narcissists gaslight you so you begin to gaslight yourself into thinking what you are feeling, hearing, seeing and experiencing isn’t true. A narcissistic partner can manipulate you into thinking that perhaps that hurtful comment really was just a joke and that their infidelity was just a one-time thing. Many of these partners engage in pathological lying and rewrite reality on a daily basis to suit their needs and to conceal their manipulative agenda.” ― Shahida Arabi (Becoming the Narcissist’s Nightmare: How to Devalue and Discard the Narcissist While Supplying Yourself)
10. “You tried to gaslight me. You pissed on my foot and told me it was raining.” ― Helen M. Pugsley
11. “Here comes the gaslighting. He’s attempting to make me feel crazy for being scared, even though my fear is more than warranted.” ― Colleen Hoover (It Starts with Us)
12. “One of the first steps in freeing yourself from a gaslighting relationship, then, is to acknowledge how unpleasant and hurtful you find this Emotional Apocalypse.” ― Robin Stern
13. “You love someone. You don’t leave her to drown. And you don’t tell her she’s crazier than she already knows that she is!” ― Caitlín R. Kiernan (The Drowning Girl)
14. “You are being abused if you find yourself apologizing when you didn’t do anything.” ― Tracy Malone
15. “Gaslighting their partners into believing the abuse isn’t real by denying, minimizing or rationalizing the abuse. This includes deflecting any conversations about accountability using circular conversations and word salad in order to avoid being held accountable for their actions.” ― Shahida Arabi (Becoming the Narcissist’s Nightmare: How to Devalue and Discard the Narcissist While Supplying Yourself)
16. “If you alter your behaviour because you are frightened of how your partner will react, you are being abused.” ― Sandra Horley
Gaslighting by Parents and Families Quotes:
17. “Unfortunately, because emotional abuse is often tolerated or because the abusive parents are very secretive in their abuse, emotionally abused children will assume that how they were treated at home was natural.” ― Veronica Jarski
18. “You must let go of the responsibility for the painful events of your childhood and put it where it belongs.” — Susan Forward, Craig Buck (Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life)
19. “In the minds of my parents, they are the victims; I am the abuser.” ―
20. “The most challenging aspect of psychological/emotional abuse is that is deniable by our family members and impossible to prove.” ― Sherrie Campbell (But It’s Your Family…: Cutting Ties with Toxic Family Members and Loving Yourself in the Aftermath)
21. “Your toxic parent may charm the pants off perfect strangers, your friends, and more distant relatives. All of which just appears to make you out to be the bad guy.” — Unknown
22. “If mental abuse was a punishable crime, a lot of parents would be in jail serving a long term.” ― Maddy Malhotra (How to Build Self-Esteem and Be Confident: Overcome Fears, Break Habits, Be Successful and Happy)
23. “I will give my toxic mother one thing she never gave me—the truth.” ― Rayne Wolfe
24. “My sister only has one side of the story but she is sure that she knows the whole story because that is how the dysfunctional system works. We don’t question everyone or even consider that there may be another side to the story but instead automatically believe the one who has the most power in the relationship.” ― Darlene Ouimet
Related quotes
👉 107 Toxic Parents Quotes (When Mother and Father Are Abusive AF)
Gaslighting and Manipulation Quotes:
25. “Remember, someone that does something bad to you will always try to control the narrative, and they generally get out of there first and spin the story to anyone who will listen. I always like to watch the quiet one. You are not alone.” — Maranda Pleasant
26. “The gaslighter avoids responsibility for their toxic behaviour by lying and denying and making you question facts, your memory and your feelings.” ― Karen Salmansohn
27. “Invalidation is crazy-making, and it is also at the root of gaslighting, where victims’ feelings are purposely denied or manipulated in order to make them question their sanity.” ― Samantha Rodman (How to Talk to Your Kids about Your Divorce: Healthy, Effective Communication Techniques for Your Changing Family)
28. “Changed behavior is the only apology, otherwise, it’s just manipulation.” ― Maranda Pleasant
29. “Toxic people be like, ‘How dare you set boundaries and not allow me to control and manipulate you?’” ― Wingheart
30. “Some people will label you as vindictive, unforgiving or even evil for not allowing them to hurt you, yet again.” ― Wayne Gerard Trotman
31. “People who harm you will blame you for it. Remember, an abuser will generally always play the victim, spin a story, tell everyone and they generally call you crazy.” ― Maranda Pleasant
32. “Let us not get scooped up by gaslighting manipulators stealing our emotions and taking possession of our inner child to carry out their dark agenda. Let the light of our intuition guide us subtly and wisely along the path of trust and suspicion. ― Erik Pevernagie
Quotes About Being Gaslit:
33. “Gaslighting can be subtle and unintentional, but as feminist writer Nora Samaran explains, it is particularly insidious because it undermines people’s trust in their own capacities.” — Carla Bergman (Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times)
34. “It frightens me because I feel vulnerable to attacks, an easy target for gaslighting. Phrases like ‘No, I didn’t say that!’, ‘You don’t remember,’ and ‘You must have forgotten,’ start rattling my brain and making me jittery.” ― Ankita Sahani
35. “In times of psychological warfare, I will fight for my right to peace of mind and happiness. I will win. And in doing so, I will inspire in others the courage to do the same.” ― Shahida Arabi (Becoming the Narcissist’s Nightmare: How to Devalue and Discard the Narcissist While Supplying Yourself)
36. “A lot of people who have experienced trauma at the hands of people they’ve trusted take responsibility, and that is what’s toxic.” ― Hannah Gadsby
37. “Gaslighting, brainwashing, cults, hostage situations, and totalitarian propaganda have a common basis. They use similar techniques to confuse, intimidate, and disempower people. These methods are used by abusers of all kinds for the purpose of controlling other people, and promoting the abusers’ interests.” — Linda Hatch
38. “When you were abused, those around you acted as if it weren’t happening. Since no one else acknowledged the abuse, you sometimes felt that it wasn’t real.” ― Beverly Engel (The Right to Innocence)
39. “Someone who gaslights you is trying to talk you out of your experience to alleviate their shame and responsibility to an issue. It’s a tool to control and manipulate you.” — Dr. Henry Cloud
Recovering From Gaslighting Quotes:
40. “After the fog lifts and you awaken to the truth about abuse, the narcissist and flying monkeys will minimize the facts about what took place. They will discredit you. They will undermine your own perception. They will accuse you of being insane. Even if you took the time to explain yourself, they will cast all blame onto you.” ― Dana Arcuri (Certified Trauma Recovery Coach, Soul Rescue: How to Break Free From Narcissistic Abuse & Heal Trauma)
41. “Don’t sink to the lever of gaslighter as there some of the most childish and immature people you will ever come across in your lifetime.” ― Samuel Zulu
42. “Some people do Oscar-winning performances to gaslight your good heart. Do not forget what they are.” — Dinakar
43. “Remember: As long as there’s any part of yourself that believes you need your gaslighter to feel better about yourself, to boost your confidence, or to bolster your sense of who you are in the world, you’ll be leaving yourself open for gaslighting.” ― Robin Stern (The Gaslight Effect: How to Spot and Survive the Hidden Manipulation Others Use to Control Your Life)
44. “Sometimes you have to choose between being lonely and being crazy.” ― Anonymous
45. “If you walked away from a toxic, negative, abusive, one-sided, dead-end low vibrational relationship or friendship — you won.” – Lalah Delia
46. “The secret to healing is when you learn that you had the power all along. The brainwashing fades and the fears retreat as you rebuild and create the happiest you. Be strong and fight for the future of drinking lemonade in peace.” — Tracy Malone
47. “Remember, a fact is a fact, no matter how hard the liars amongst you might try hushing it up.” ― Billy Childish (My Fault)
48. “Study Forgiveness – To heal your wounds, not to erase or condone their actions, rather to detach the emotional charge from the offenses, so these events do not control your feelings or life. Heal the PTSD and live the life you deserve. Be a SurThriver.” ― Tracy A Malone
49. “Taking back our control and power . . . means seeking validating professional help for the abuse we’ve suffered, detaching from these people in our lives, learning more about the techniques of abusers, finding support networks, sharing our story to raise awareness, and finding appropriate healing modalities that can enable us to transcend and thrive after their abuse.” ― Shahida Arabi
50. “Recovery from emotional abuse is a unique journey for everyone. Start by controlling what you can, grab a hold of your new chapter. Learn to let go of the past, because you never really had control of that.” ― Tracy A Malone
The best quotes for when you were gaslighted
Whether you were gaslit in the past or you are currently being gaslighted, the emotional effects are longlasting.
You never deserved to be abused.
I am so sorry, and my hope is that you can find a way out of this darkness.
Speaking of healing, have you downloaded your free inner child healing workbook yet? 👇
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