{"id":30523,"date":"2022-10-17T11:00:55","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T15:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthymindsphilly.org\/?p=30523"},"modified":"2022-10-17T11:00:55","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T15:00:55","slug":"domestic-violence-awareness-month-what-is-gaslighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthymindsphilly.org\/dev\/blog\/domestic-violence-awareness-month-what-is-gaslighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Domestic Violence Awareness Month: What is Gaslighting?"},"content":{"rendered":"

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This is an annual opportunity to highlight information and resources about domestic violence. Unfortunately, domestic violence continues to be a common experience. And it\u2019s more difficult for survivors to get help when abusive dynamics are unknown or taboo to talk about. <\/span>Domestic violence is a pattern of behaviors used by one person to maintain power and control over another person in an intimate or family relationship. <\/b>Physical violence may be one of these behaviors, but abusive behaviors can also include <\/span>financial<\/b><\/a>,<\/b> sexual<\/b><\/a>, or emotional abuse. Survivors of domestic violence often find emotional abuse to be especially painful. One type of emotional abuse is called <\/span>gaslighting<\/b><\/a>.<\/b> You may have heard this word before, but what does it mean?<\/span>
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What is gaslighting?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The term \u201cgaslighting\u201d comes from a 1938 play (and <\/span>1944 movie<\/b><\/a>) called \u201cGas Light\u201d where a husband tries to make his wife think she is going crazy. He dims the lights around the house and denies the lights are flickering, hides objects and accuses her of misplacing them, and tries to convince her she can\u2019t trust her own memories. While gas lamps aren\u2019t a feature of most houses anymore, abusive partners often use tactics like these to make their partners doubt themselves. Gaslighting behaviors might look like:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n