Has The Narcissist Damaged Your Self-Image?

When you first meet the narcissist, they draw you in with their charm and compliments. They will give you lavish praise and tell you they have never met anyone like you before. You feel so amazing, loved, and seen. As soon as they stop love-bombing you, which is usually when they believe they have you locked down, you find yourself living with constant hurt, deprivation, confusion, and feeling worse about yourself than ever.

You may at first try to talk to them about it. You want to know where that amazing person you knew at the beginning disappeared to. You’re met with denial and stonewalling. It seems like they feel no guilt at all. They shift it all around on you and tell you everything is always “your fault.” The intense gaslighting has you buying all of the blame — hook, line, and sinker.

Do they even realize how much they are hurting you?

NO!

Narcissists lack self-awareness so they have no idea that they’re hurting you. It doesn’t even enter their minds, because they don’t actually care. If you attempt to tell them how you feel, they get defensive and make you feel you’re wrong again.

In order to cope, narcissists need to constantly feel better than others so they will leave you swimming in self-doubt in an attempt to build their very unstable confidence. They…