Do you hate being interrupted? Maybe you're being gaslit. Gaslighting: Stop interrupting!
Constant interruption by itself is not automatically gaslighting. Some people interrupt because they are impulsive, anxious, or poor listeners. But when interruption becomes patterned and strategic, it can function as part of gaslighting behavior.
Here's how.
Gaslighting aims to destabilize your confidence in your own perception and voice. Constant interruption can serve that goal in several ways:
First, it prevents you from completing your thought. When someone repeatedly cuts you off before you can fully articulate your experience, you are denied narrative ownership. Over time, this trains your nervous system to hesitate. You begin to shorten your sentences, soften your claims, or abandon your point altogether.Second, interruption subtly communicates hierarchy. It says, "My voice matters more than yours." When this happens in spiritual or leadership contexts, it can reinforce a power imbalance. If you are interrupted every time you raise a concern, eventually you may stop raising it -- and then you may begin wondering if it was valid in the first place.Third, interruption can derail clarity. Gaslighting often works by shifting topics quickly, reframing what you said, or inserting a new interpretation before you've finished speaking. You might say, "That hurt me," and before you can explain why, the other person responds, "You're being too sensitive," or "That's not what happened." The interruption becomes the doorway to rewriting reality.Fourth, interruption creates mental fog. When you are constantly cut off, your brain has to work harder to track the conversation. This increases cognitive load. When someone later says, "You're remembering that wrong," you may genuinely feel less certain because you never had the space to lay out your memory clearly.In Christian contexts especially, constant interruption can be spiritualized. Someone may interrupt with Scripture, authority statements, or spiritual explanations that override your lived experience. When done repeatedly, it can feel like you are not allowed to finish a sentence without being corrected or reframed. That is not healthy shepherding; that is conversational control.Sj
