You bet it can!! My first husband was very verbally and emotionally abusive to me. One of his greatest weapons was to convince me that I was crazy and I didn't know what I had said, didn't know what I was saying in the present and accused me of saying things when I wasn't even talking!!

I didn't know this had left scars bad enough to cause PTSD, but it had. Someone, not too long ago, suggested that I was so stressed out that I didn't know what I was saying. YIKES!!! Did that ever trigger me!!! I couldn't talk to that person for months!!

I wasn't stressed out and I certainly DID know what I was saying... much like when I was married to that first excuse for a husband.

Oh, by the way... it's okay to spell out "abuse."