"Why Do I Feel So Much Resentment? A Survivor’s Honest Answer"
When someone you trust and love repeatedly violates that trust—not with punches or screaming, but with silence, neglect, cheating, lies, and emotional erasure—it changes you. It leaves invisible wounds that don’t bleed but never stop aching. And that ache? It often becomes resentment.
If You Never Felt Loved as a Child, How Do You Love Unconditionally as a Parent?(A Reflection from a Survivor of Silent Gaslighting)
When you've grown up—or lived for decades—inside relationships where love was conditional, confusing, or withheld, becoming a parent can feel like standing at the edge of a cliff with no map, no safety net, and no guide.
I was a victim of silent gaslighting—a kind of emotional abuse that doesn’t leave bruises, but instead erodes your trust in yourself over time. For over 20 years, I lived with someone who never hit me, only threatened once, never screamed, until the end—but who used silence, withdrawal, blame, and control to distort my reality. I lost track of who I was. I learned to second-guess everything. And slowly, I began to believe I didn’t deserve love at all.
So how do you parent after that?
Reclaiming My Inner Voice: Trusting Myself Again After Silent Abuse
There was a time I didn’t trust myself at all. Not my memory, not my gut, not even my own eyes. That’s what years of silent abuse does—it doesn’t scream in your face, it whispers just loud enough to make you question everything.