One of the best protections against manipulation is a trusted friend who hears the whole story.

Being worked on is hard to notice from inside, because every step is explained to you as reasonable and each piece arrives separately. Saying the whole thing out loud to somebody who is not involved assembles it, and the pattern that was invisible in pieces becomes obvious in one telling. Nobody who is managing you wants that conversation to happen.

Keep one person you can tell everything to, including the parts that make you look foolish. Tell them the whole sequence, not the summary. If you find yourself editing it so it sounds better, that is worth noticing on its own.