Discover why empaths often gaslight themselves and how to break the cycle of self-doubt. Read how co-founder Anne-Kathrin overcame a recent situation related to self-gaslighting.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
As empaths, we experience the world in a profoundly unique way. Our heightened sensitivity allows us to deeply connect with others, often absorbing their emotions as if they were our own. While this ability can be a gift, it also comes with significant challenges. One of the most insidious is the tendency to gaslight ourselves. We doubt our feelings, question our reactions, and ultimately blame ourselves for emotions that aren’t even ours to begin with.
In this blog, I’ll share a personal experience that highlights this struggle and explore why empaths are particularly prone to self-gaslighting. I’ll also discuss how modern tools, like artificial intelligence, can help us gain clarity and reclaim our emotional power. If you’ve ever found yourself questioning your emotions or feeling overwhelmed by the energy of others, this is for you. Let’s dive into why we gaslight ourselves and how we can stop.
Let Me Start By Sharing a Story
Recently, I received an unpleasant e-mail from someone. As soon as I read it, a wave of negative emotions washed over me. I felt worthlessness, frustration, and a deep sense of being underestimated. These feelings weren’t just fleeting; they lingered and intensified as I tried to craft a polite and professional response. As an empath, I immediately absorbed all the emotions embedded in that email, taking them on as if they were my own. This is something that many empaths do. We absorb the emotions of others so deeply that we often confuse them with our own, leading to self-doubt and emotional turmoil.
The Challenge of Responding with Positivity
As I continued to work through my response, I became increasingly insecure. I found myself questioning whether my frustration was seeping into my reply, unconsciously transferring that negative energy back to the sender. The last thing I wanted was to perpetuate the cycle of negativity. Instead, I wanted to ensure that my response was neutral and constructive, but I wasn’t sure if I was succeeding.
A Modern Solution: Using AI for Emotional Clarity
This experience led me to discover a useful workaround for situations like this: using artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for emotional clarity. After removing any identifying details, I fed the email exchange into an AI tool and asked it to analyze the tone and content of both the email I received and the response I was drafting. The results were incredibly enlightening. The AI confirmed that the negative emotions I was holding onto were indeed triggered by the email I received. However, it also showed that my response did not carry those emotions back to the sender. Despite the intense feelings I had absorbed, I had managed to keep them internal and send a different, more positive energy back.
The Reality of Self-Gaslighting for Empaths
This revelation highlighted something that empaths often do: we gaslight ourselves. We convince ourselves that we are the ones being rude or insensitive when, in fact, those feelings were triggered by someone else’s words or actions. This self-doubt often stems from years of being told that we are “too sensitive,” that we need to toughen up, or that we’re crybabies. From a young age, many empaths are made to feel that their emotions are too much. That they need to be suppressed or ignored. As a result, we begin to doubt our feelings, questioning whether they are valid or if we’re simply overreacting. This internalized message often leads to a pattern of self-gaslighting, where we dismiss our emotions and blame ourselves for reacting too strongly.
Reclaiming Your Emotional Power
It’s sad to think that these early experiences can have such a profound effect on us as adults. But here’s where AI can be a powerful ally. By objectively analyzing situations, especially those in written form, we can gain clarity about what’s really happening. We can confirm that the emotions we’re feeling are indeed reactions to someone else’s energy, and not something we’ve created ourselves. This realization can be incredibly liberating. It allows us to trust our feelings once again, to understand that we’re not being overly sensitive—we’re just being true to our nature as empaths.
The Importance of Trusting Yourself
So, I want to encourage you, as an empath, to stop gaslighting yourself. When you feel something deeply, trust that feeling. If you’re struggling with self-doubt, consider using tools like AI to help you objectively analyze situations and prove to yourself that your feelings are valid. It’s important that we, as empaths, trust our powers. By doing so, we can contribute to making the world a more gentle, understanding place.
Choosing Kindness and Raising the World’s Frequency
This was also my choice with the email I received. Instead of returning the negative energy I absorbed, I chose to respond with kindness and understanding. I believe that by doing so, I’m not only protecting my own well-being but also helping to raise the frequency of the world around me. And that, in itself, is a powerful way to change the world for the better.
Trust your intuition, embrace your sensitivity, and remember that your emotions are your strength, not your weakness.
I am curious: do you gaslight yourself frequently? In what situations? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
Disclaimer: In this article, we collaborated with AI while writing articles, meaning that we used it as a personal assistant to provide valuable information to our readers. The personal touch through stories and personal examples and the editing of the article have been performed by the author.
