It was one of the commonest words searched for via the Yahoo search engine in 2021, but what exactly is ‘gaslighting’?

From Coronation Street to Love Island, gaslighting has been used as a storyline or had a show's producers accused of enabling such tactics on participants.

However, in everyday life, the story behind gaslighting is a much more stark and frightening reality.

Gaslighting, was first coined in a 1938 stage play entitled 'Gasight', in which a young woman's husband slowly manipulates her into believing she is descending into insanity so that he can steal from her. It later became a British film in 1940 and then a Hollywood remake in 1944 starring Ingrid Bergman and Angela Lansbury in her debut role. 

By now, it is the term used to describe a form of emotional abuse and coercive control.

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The victims of gaslighting are made to feel mentally vulnerable by the abuser, leading to their manipulation. Coupled with the erosion of victim's self-esteem and self-worth over a period of time, a state of depression and anxiety ensues. Often with no signs of psychical abuse, gaslighting makes the person question their own reality.

In turn, seeking help or assistance from those around the victim can seem more and more futile, as the mental stranglehold of the abuser prevents the victim from having their situation properly understood.

With a businessman convicted in November 2021 at Cardiff Magistrates Court for 'gaslighting' his then partner, the problem is very much in evidence in society today. Robert Aston was handed a 12-week jail sentence for targeting his former girlfriend. 

Despite the increased awareness of the impact on mental illness during the Covid-19 pandemic, a survey of public attitudes in Wales conducted by Kantar on behalf of Time to Change for Wales in 2021 uncovered some startling statistics. The research found that whereas that was a positive shift in the Welsh public's attitude to mental illness with regard to understanding and tolerance, the amount of people who feel uncomfortable talking to friends and relatives about mental health had doubled from 20 percent in 2019 to 43 percent in 2021.

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