How Gaslighting Triggers Anxiety and Depression

You replay conversations in your head, wondering if you really said what they claim you said. You apologize for things you're not sure you did wrong. You feel a knot in your stomach before every interaction – and you can't shake the thought that maybe you're the problem.

If this sounds familiar, what you're experiencing may not be a personal flaw. It may be the psychological aftermath of gaslighting – and research shows it can directly trigger anxiety and depression.

Gaslighting is one of the most insidious forms of emotional manipulation because it attacks your ability to trust yourself. Over time, this constant self-doubt doesn't just feel uncomfortable – it rewires your brain's stress response and can lead to diagnosable mental health conditions. In this article, you'll learn exactly how gaslighting creates anxiety and depression, what it does to your brain, and what evidence-based steps you can take to start recovering.

What Is Gaslighting?

Gaslighting is a pattern of manipulation where someone makes you question your own reality, memory, or perceptions. It can happen in romantic relationships, workplaces, families, or friendships.

Common gaslighting tactics include denying events you clearly remember, trivializing your feelings ("You're overreacting"), shifting blame back onto you, and isolating you from people who might validate your experience. In some cases, gaslighters also use the silent treatment as a form of emotional control to deepen your confusion and self-doubt.

The scale of the problem is significant. According to the CDC, over 61 million women and 53 million men in the United States have experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner. A 2025 study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence found that one in four adolescent daters reported experiencing gaslighting in the past year alone.

How Gaslighting Triggers Anxiety

The connection between gaslighting and mental health isn't just emotional – it's biological. When someone consistently undermines your sense of reality, your brain interprets it as a threat. And your body responds accordingly.

Your Stress Response Gets Stuck on High Alert

Every time a gaslighter contradicts your experience or makes you doubt yourself, your brain's threat detection system activates. Your body floods with cortisol – the primary stress hormone – preparing you to fight or flee. Learning to calm your nervous system after emotional abuse is a critical part of breaking this cycle.

The problem is that gaslighting doesn't come and go like a single stressful event. It's ongoing and unpredictable. As forensic psychologist Dr. Joni E. Johnston explains, "Gaslighting doesn't just manipulate victims – over time, it literally rewires their brains."

Your fight-or-flight response gets stuck in the "on" position. You become hypervigilant, constantly scanning for the next verbal trap or emotional ambush. This chronic state of alertness is exhausting – and it's the foundation of anxiety disorders.

You Stop Trusting Your Own Perceptions

One of the most damaging effects of gaslighting is how it erodes your self-worth. When someone repeatedly tells you that your memories are wrong, your feelings are invalid, or your reactions are "crazy," you begin to internalize those messages.

You start second-guessing every thought and decision. You seek external validation before making even small choices – what to wear, what to eat, whether your own emotions are "appropriate." This chronic uncertainty creates a feedback loop of anxious thinking that can persist long after the gaslighting ends.

How Gaslighting Leads to Depression

While anxiety is about anticipating future threats, depression often comes from a sense of hopelessness about the present. Gaslighting creates the perfect conditions for both.

Learned Helplessness Takes Root

When every attempt to assert your reality is met with denial, dismissal, or punishment, something shifts inside you. You learn that nothing you do will change the situation – a psychological state researchers call "learned helplessness."

This is the bridge between gaslighting and depression. You stop speaking up because it never works. You withdraw from friends and family – partly because the gaslighter has isolated you, and partly because you no longer trust your own version of events enough to share it. This dynamic often deepens into a trauma bond that's difficult to break.

Research confirms the severity of these outcomes. A 2025 study found that 86.5% of gaslighting victims display symptoms associated with PTSD, which frequently co-occurs with depression. You can learn more about the connection between gaslighting and PTSD in our dedicated guide.

The Emotional Shutdown

Over time, the constant emotional toll of gaslighting leads to a survival mechanism: numbing. You stop feeling the highs and lows because it's safer to feel nothing at all.

You withdraw from activities you once enjoyed. Persistent feelings of worthlessness – reinforced daily by the gaslighter – become your inner narrative. The world feels smaller, darker, and harder to navigate. These are hallmark symptoms of clinical depression.

What Gaslighting Does to Your Brain

The mental health effects of gaslighting aren't just "in your head" – they're visible in brain imaging. Understanding the neuroscience can actually help you feel less alone in your experience.

The Hippocampus and Memory

The hippocampus is the brain region responsible for forming and storing memories. Chronic stress from gaslighting floods your brain with cortisol, and elevated cortisol levels can actually shrink the hippocampus over time. Research shows that emotional manipulation directly affects long-term memory in measurable ways.

This creates a cruel cycle: the gaslighter tells you your memory is unreliable, and the stress they cause makes your memory genuinely less sharp. It's not your fault – it's a physiological response to sustained emotional abuse.

The Amygdala and Emotional Reactivity

The amygdala is your brain's emotional alarm system. Under chronic gaslighting, it becomes enlarged and overactive, making you more emotionally reactive and less able to regulate your responses.

Here's the critical part: the more active your amygdala becomes, the less active your prefrontal cortex – the "thinking brain" – gets. Your survival brain hijacks resources from your reasoning brain. This is why you may feel like you "can't think straight" around a gaslighter. You literally lose access to higher-order reasoning.

The encouraging news is that the brain is remarkably adaptable. Through a process called neuroplasticity, these changes can be reversed with proper therapeutic support and time.

Signs Your Anxiety or Depression May Be From Gaslighting

Not all anxiety and depression stem from gaslighting – but if you notice these patterns, it's worth exploring the connection:

• You feel anxious around one specific person – Your symptoms spike before, during, or after interactions with them
• You constantly second-guess yourself – You need others to confirm your own experiences before you believe them
• You apologize for everything – Even when you know logically you've done nothing wrong
• You feel "crazy" or "too sensitive" – Especially after someone has told you so repeatedly
• Your symptoms started or worsened during a particular relationship, job, or living situation
• You've lost interest in things you used to enjoy – And you can trace the shift back to a specific person or period
• You feel numb or emotionally flat – As though your feelings have been "turned off"

If several of these resonate, the anxiety and depression you're experiencing may be a direct response to sustained gaslighting. Review our list of signs you may need therapy after gaslighting for more guidance.

How to Start Recovering

Recovery from gaslighting-related anxiety and depression is absolutely possible. Your brain can heal – but it needs the right support.

Name What Happened

The first and most powerful step is calling it what it is. Acknowledging that you experienced gaslighting – that the manipulation was real and not your imagination – begins to rebuild your sense of reality.

Start a journal where you record events as they happen. Write down conversations, your feelings, and what actually occurred. This creates an external record that your gaslighter can't rewrite.

Rebuild Your Support System

Gaslighting thrives in isolation. Reconnect with trusted friends, family members, or support groups for survivors of narcissistic abuse. Share your experience with people who listen without judgment.

You don't have to share everything at once. Start small – tell one person one thing. Their validation of your experience can be incredibly healing. Our guide on social support strategies for gaslighting recovery offers practical steps.

Work with a Therapist

Professional support is one of the most effective paths to recovery. Evidence-based approaches that help with gaslighting-related anxiety and depression include:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – Helps identify and correct the distorted thinking patterns gaslighting created
• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) – Processes traumatic memories so they lose their emotional charge
• DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) – Builds emotional regulation skills that gaslighting eroded

According to the American Psychological Association, therapy is effective for the vast majority of people who engage with it, with most experiencing meaningful symptom relief.

Practice Grounding Techniques

When anxiety or self-doubt spikes, grounding techniques can bring you back to the present. Try the 5-4-3-2-1 method: name five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste.

Mindfulness meditation – even five minutes a day – can help strengthen your prefrontal cortex and quiet the overactive amygdala over time. You can also explore strengthening your self-esteem to resist future manipulation as part of your long-term recovery.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can gaslighting cause anxiety and depression?

Yes. Chronic gaslighting triggers your body's stress response, flooding your system with cortisol and keeping your fight-or-flight response constantly activated. Over time, this sustained stress can develop into clinical anxiety. The learned helplessness and erosion of self-worth that gaslighting causes are also direct pathways to depression.

What does gaslighting do to your brain?

Gaslighting creates measurable changes in brain structure and function. Chronic stress from gaslighting can shrink the hippocampus (affecting memory), enlarge the amygdala (increasing emotional reactivity), and reduce prefrontal cortex activity (impairing clear thinking). Brain scans of chronic gaslighting survivors show patterns that resemble those of PTSD sufferers.

How do you know if your anxiety is from gaslighting?

Key indicators include anxiety that spikes around a specific person, constant self-doubt, excessive apologizing, feeling "crazy" or "too sensitive," and symptoms that started or worsened during a particular relationship. If your anxiety is accompanied by a persistent need for external validation and difficulty trusting your own perceptions, gaslighting may be a contributing factor.

Can you get PTSD from gaslighting?

Yes. Research published in 2025 found that 86.5% of gaslighting victims display symptoms associated with PTSD, including hypervigilance, emotional numbing, intrusive thoughts, and avoidance behaviors. The longer and more intense the gaslighting, the higher the risk of developing PTSD. Learn more in our guide on gaslighting and PTSD.

How long does it take to recover from gaslighting?

Recovery timelines vary significantly depending on the duration and severity of the gaslighting, your support system, and whether you're working with a therapist. Some people notice improvement within a few months of leaving the situation and starting therapy. Others may need a year or more. The brain's neuroplasticity means healing is always possible – it just takes time and consistent effort.