gaslighting

When your reality is systematically denied, you learn to turn the blame inward. You spend years looking for the "secret" to fixing yourself, believing that your anxiety, your fear, and your struggles are proof that you are fundamentally broken. But the truth is much simpler, and much kinder: Your body was simply keeping score of an environment that was never safe. The behaviors we used to survive weren't a sign of madness. They were the only tools we had to cope with a system that refused to see us. Reclaiming your own knowing starts with realizing you were never the problem—you were just trying to survive.