When You Don’t Trust Your Own Mind Anymore One of the most disorienting parts of C-PTSD—especially after gaslighting or narcissistic abuse—is this: You stop trusting your own perception. You don’t just question what they said. You question what you felt. What you saw. What you remember. You replay conversations. Minimize your reactions. Tell yourself you’re “too sensitive” or “reading into it.” And after a while, it doesn’t feel like manipulation anymore. It just feels like… you. Gaslighting teaches you to override your internal signals: 🚩 Something feels off → you explain it away 🚩 You feel hurt → you downplay it 🚩 You remember something clearly → you doubt it Your voice gets quieter. Theirs stays. Rebuilding self-trust is slow. It’s practice: 🟣 Pause before invalidating yourself 🟣 Name what you felt (no debate) 🟣 Look for patterns, not one moment 🟣 Write things down 🟣 Stop over-explaining 🟣 Listen to your body 🟣 Make small decisions and stick with them It’s not about being certain all the time. It’s about slowly learning: maybe my experience is real. ☯️ The Purple Phoenix Collective