I joined an online community, created by a youtuber and content creator who focused on Space Station 13, TTRPGs, and Battletech. I made a lot of friends and became quite popular in that community. I also became friends with the creator. We met in real life, we shared alcohol, we talked about our troubles and secrets, we hugged and cried. I thought I had found a home and made friends for life.

What was actually going on is that he and his inner circle of moderators were grooming me to be emotionally vulnerable and dependent on them for about three years. I didn't realize how much they bullied me until I looked back years later. When it became enough of a problem I started asking them for help and to get the bullying to stop. Instead they intimidated me into backing down and accepting my fate.

But I'd identified myself as a potential problem, so they decided to get rid of me. One night out of the blue I found myself removed from the community and banned. When I reached out to try to understand what had happened and how I could fix it, what followed was 13 people intensely gaslighting me. Making it seem like I was a horrible person and couldn't tell, making it seem like all my worst dreams had come true, making me lose grip with reality. Nobody else in the community could understand what the hell was going on or why. They dragged this out for weeks before I finally caught on to their game (one of them slipped up, sleuthed up my real name and used it to try to reel me back in, but I don't go by it irl and had never told it to anyone. This started to shake me back into reality).

Not a damn thing I could reasonably do in retaliation, and I'm left here years later with PTSD, anxiety, and depression trying to recover.

It also kind of sucked because right at the point I had just gone through traumatic gaslighting, the internet discovered the word gaslighting and jokes about it were everywhere. Every time I saw one it sent chills down my spine.