Three Signs You’re Gaslighting Yourself

What does “invalidate your feelings” mean in English?

You probably know “valid” from passports or tickets — it means something is real and accepted. “Invalidate” is the opposite: to say something does not count. When people say “invalidate your feelings,” they mean you push your own emotions away. You tell yourself: “I am too sensitive” or “My reaction is too much.” The feeling is real, but you decide it has no value.

In the clip, Dr Julie describes the third sign of self-gaslighting: “you invalidate or ignore your own feelings because you come to believe that you’re oversensitive or you overreact.” She means you learn to stop yourself from feeling things before anyone else tells you to. You hear “invalidate” a lot in mental-health talk today. A friend might say, “Stop invalidating my feelings” — meaning: stop telling me my emotions are wrong. A therapist might say, “I don’t want to invalidate what you went through” — meaning: I accept that your experience was real. The opposite is “validate your feelings” — to accept that a feeling makes sense, even when it is hard. These words still work in their older uses too — a ticket can be invalidated, an argument or a document validated. But in mental-health English, they are now used just as often about emotions.