Hi HD,

Thank you SO much for sharing this excerpt. I've been actually struggling a lot lately with two situations: one with my abusive bio father and the other with an acquaintance who became abusive towards me. I don't throw around the term abusive lightly or frequently. With my dad and FOO, this behavior was so common, and it took a long time for me to go "Hey! I was a kid! I was allowed to be stupid and not always behave perfectly!" But still to this day, due to their gaslighting, it's hard for me to not take responsibility for THEIR behavior. Then this acquaintance, one of the few people I've met who really must have some kind of PD because there is no other way to explain their behavior, basically does this same thing to everyone. They behave badly, to the point of abusively, then accuse everyone else they know of that behavior. It's gaslighting to it's finest. And if you publicly called them out on their behavior then they would say that's proof they are right. When this person showed their true nature I just started blocking them everywhere, even though they even did things on social media like create new fake accounts to try to get back at me, but that worked. Eventually people approached me in our same social circle who experienced the same thing, and they also blocked them and so I was able to validate them and listen to them. When it's just a person who has no real power, it's easier to manage, I suppose, But I don't know what you do when it's medical staff. I have shared with you that I experienced malpractice in my search for treatment for cPTSD, but yes, my biggest fear is that they call you crazy and if you argue they say that only means you're crazy - so defending yourself is someone only proving their point. It's like to defend yourself you'd have to have absolutely no emotions. It's very hard to combat, but it is possible, with the support of a network of family and friends who believe you, or even just one person who believes you to give you that emotional support.