Losing trust in themselves is extremely damaging to people, and it's one of the biggest challenges for people recovering from abuse. It's common for people to view this as an issue with trusting others and of course, it often is, but it also usually goes deeper than that. When someone breaks your trust, that is very painful, but it should not be devastating. The only time this happens is when someone is relying on the relationship or the other person for things they need to be doing for themselves, such as to validate their self-worth or to define who they are. If this responsibility has been placed on a partner or relationship, then the act of that partner's infidelity or some other large breach of trust will be far more destructive than it otherwise would be, because they haven't only betrayed the relationship.

One of the things these relationships create is an environment where the victim is conditioned to focus solely on the other person, to the point they can lose who they are. The relationship or other person then begins to define them, as there is nothing else allowed. Because of that, losing this relationship can become devastating on a level that other relationships have not been.