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There is a particular kind of exhaustion that empaths know well. It is not the tiredness of hard work or late nights. It is the exhaustion of having been slowly, systematically convinced that your perception of reality is wrong.

You remember the moment clearly — or you think you do. But they have told you so many times that it didn't happen that way, that you've begun to doubt the memory itself. This is not a personal failing. This is a design feature of the relationship you have found yourself in.

The narcissist does not gaslight you because they are evil. They gaslight you because it works. And it works because you are, at your core, someone who believes in the good faith of others. Someone who would rather question themselves than accuse someone they love.

That quality — that radical openness to being wrong — is not your weakness. It is your greatest strength. And it is exactly what makes you a target.