Dating

Gaslighting is a complicated form of manipulation that an individual may use to alter the perception or thoughts of another. However, it can also be tough to identify. Identifying gaslighting tactics and understanding their intended effects are crucial in ensuring that one’s opinions, will, or identity are not compromised at the behest of others.    Gaslighting is used as a tactic to increase one’s control over another and does not lend itself to healthy relationships. The feelings of self-doubt that arise can compromise many different aspects of one’s life. Identifying standard gaslighting techniques or recognizing a change in one’s thoughts can all be vital in overcoming these attempts and moving towards a confident, self-assured mentality.

Calling someone a narcissist sometimes gets casually thrown around, but what makes a person a true narcissist with a narcissistic personality disorder? Anyone with a personality disorder will think, feel, and behave differently from the norms of generally accepted behavior, and this behavior causes problems with normal functioning and relating to others. Narcissistic personality disorder is one of the ten types of personality disorders and is characterized by having a sense of self-importance, entitlement, and lack of empathy for others. They May Not See a Problem, But You Do Someone with narcissistic personality disorder usually doesn’t realize anything is wrong due to their self-perceived superiority. However, those in a relationship with a narcissist are likely to sense that something feels problematic about them. By identifying if you are in a relationship with someone with narcissistic personality disorder, you can decide whether you want to make it work or protect yourself from emotional exhaustion and release yourself from the relationship. 5 Signs Your Partner Has Narcissistic Personality Disorder:

Ghosting is a modern term for a peculiar occasion which happens in dating. Someone who “ghosts” someone else completely cuts off communication without warning. Often, to the person who is being “ghosted” it can feel like there is also no cause for the sudden disappearance. Ghosting could be a symptom of a mental health condition which complicates the ability to maintain healthy relationships. Mental Illness deeply fears invalidation Some mental health conditions have a deep issue with the perceived offense of invalidation. Invalidation is a way of making someone feel as though they are not valid to you, or as a person. People who have a mental illness which distorts their perception of self and their ego can take real or perceived signals of invalidation very personally and feel the need to retaliate in response. Ghosting is the way that they hurt you while simultaneously protecting themselves, though they hurt themselves in the process. Mental Illness deeply fears abandonment Abandonment issues can inspire long term mental health issues of all kinds to cope with the intense fear of being abandoned, neglected, or rejected. Trauma from childhood and adolescence can cause these deep fears of abandonment which do not go away until they are thoroughly confronted in therapy. Instead of having to face abandonment, someone who has to avoid any threat of abandonment will abandon the situation entirely, causing them to ghost the person they are seeing. Mental Illness creates fact from feeling Delusional thinking run entirely on feeling is a common experience in many different mental illnesses. Rather than see an objective fact, they only see their feelings and run entirely on how they feel. The feelings of abandonment and the feelings of invalidation discard the necessity of knowing whether or not they are real or perceived. All that matters is that the person feeling them feels them and that is reality enough. They act on their feelings instead of acting on a conversation or understanding what is really going on. That is why they turn to ghosting instead of having an emotionally honest conversation. Mental Illness takes everything personally Mental health conditions can create a heightened sensitivity to the actions- real or perceived- from others. Taking things personally is also acting on feelings because someone feels that what they have experienced is personal. They take feelings of abandonment and feelings of invalidation very personally. Coping with a personal offense is not easy for people with mental health conditions because coping with the pain underneath them- like feelings of abandonment and invalidation- is not easy for them. To avoid the personal commentary which could trigger feelings of low-self worth, they will turn to ghosting to eliminate the relationship entirely.