8 Gaslighting Tactics Manipulators Use Against You

8 Gaslighting Tactics Manipulators Use Against You

Many people unconsciously fall victim to toxic relationships, driven by their overwhelming emotional needs and being affected by inflammatory love-bombing attacks in the early days of relationships.. Unfortunately, all these love-booming and fake emotions are nothing but bait in order to drop them into the trap of manipulation and control.

Some of this gaslighting tactics used by all of these sociopaths and narcissists are humiliation, verbal abuse, and questioning of their victim's own judgment and sanity. This helps them in controlling their victims to the fullest extent and getting them to behave as they want

Unfortunately, most victims, especially women, bear this kind of manipulative and offensive behavior because they love their partners deeply. So they ignore all the red flags, thinking that it will get better with more time and patience. 

Therefore, the first step to correcting the course is "awareness" and acknowledgment of the validity of those red flags that confirm and confirm manipulation and abuse. 

7 Gaslighting behaviors used by manipulators to abuse and control you:

1. Lying.

When the manipulator wants to control his victim, he is lying about her inability to do something. In this way, he shows her that without him she will not be able to achieve her goals or enjoy a successful life. This happens a lot in romantic relationships where one partner feels jealous of the other and when he does everything to make her life so difficult to live alone.

He exaggerates when he says he's smarter and better than her, until you feel bad about it. But in most cases, this type of story will work because the victim will start to question her common sense and ability to do things right.

Manipulative person will lie so easily that it never crosses your mind that he is manipulating you through lies with the goal of weakening you from the inside out. He just wants you to start doubting yourself and close your eyes to all the warning signs of emotional abuse.

2. Controlling.

The most favorite gaslighting game among every toxic person is controlling their victim. They do so in a variety of ways - from denying that they have said something, to confusing and attacking you with a bunch of questions that you don't have time to answer. 

He will do all of these things because he knows that by doing so, he will have complete control over his victim and that if he convinces her that she is not good enough, she will always be with him. Also, humiliation and insults are on the list of all those nasty things a toxic person can do to their victim. 

If you let him treat you this way and you do nothing about it, you may lose your good mental health which is one of the characteristics of every abusive relationship.

3. Denying.

 When a toxic person sees that their victim is smart enough to realize that they are playing with them, they will start pretending that they do not understand what you are saying, and they will deny that they did any bad things in the past.

To every question that this toxic person is asked to, he will answer it with another question, asking her why she remembered things like this at the time because he did not find them important. 

All narcissists and sociopaths have been known to use these invasive lighting techniques as a form of abuse. The thing is, he uses whatever tactic is available to end the discussion and convince his victim that she was wrong and that he was right. But it will push you to try to prove what you are saying, knowing that you have nothing essential to prove it with anything other than your memory.

He knows exactly what he said, but he won't give up until he sees that you are swaying and really questioning your mind and your memory, until you actually start to think that he might be right. And that is how the toxic person connects you. All it takes is time, time, and time for yourself to doubt yourself and your sanity.

4. Trivialization and flatness.

Phrases like: "Don't be too sensitive!" "You're overreacting!" Or "Don't make a fuss about little things like that!" They are classic examples of gaslighting in relationships. By doing this, the toxic person intentionally does everything in their power to convince the victim that her needs are not as important as his and that she must wait a while to pursue her dreams.

He only wants to satisfy his needs, and he does not want to care about his partner at all. You will feel that you are unworthy of your feelings and the more you feel sad, he will make you feel silly about it, and the more you want to discuss a problem, he will reduce it completely.

All that matters is his nonsense, his opinions, and his decisions. And no matter how important what you say, it will make it seem small and insignificant.

5. Manipulate your emotions.

For example, if you have kids, a toxic person is likely telling you that you are a terrible mom to dedicate yourself to your career rather than to your children and that this is likely to take them away from you. This would make any woman doubt herself if she really did something like this because it would break her heart if she thought she was neglecting her children because of her job. 

If you were in a situation like this then don't think you made anything wrong because you didn't. you was just the victim of a sick man who couldn't bear that his partner was more successful than him. 

After the victim realizes all the red flags, the abuser will find another way to try to win them over. He'll probably play the cards of love and affection, and he'll tell her that he misses her so much and that's why treat her that way. Once this is said, the victim will feel overwhelmed because she won't know what the true truth is, and she will always ask herself if she should return to him and give him another chance.

6. Isolating you from the world.

This is the trickiest tactic of them all. The toxic person ,especially " Narcissists " wants to be the only person whose approval you seek, so he will make you believe that those around you, the closest to you, are all liars and have a problem with you. 

It will make you think that it is the only bright spot in your life and that you have no one else to turn to but that it will make you become accustomed to turning to him for everything because that is the only way to continue the offense. 

It will blur your idea of ​​right and wrong and make you question everything and everyone around you. Once he achieves this, he knows that he is the only person left in your life who has any power over you, and that is the only thing he needs to feel that his plan to control you has worked.

7. Using Your loved ones against you.

A toxic person is a selfish person and does not see anything other than his interest only and does not sympathize with anyone, so he does not hesitate to take advantage of any opportunity to offend you and defame you in front of your family, children, friends, and co-workers.

He may tell them fabricated stories about you in order to attract them to him or Using them as a pressure card on you, when they are convinced of the correctness of his position or sympathize with his tears and his fake influential stories, which makes them give up their support for you or oppose any decision in you make it to protect yourself.

Related:  9 Subtle Sings You Are Being Manipulated in Relationship