He tells you are being irrational, that you really need help. He tells you he’s moving out and taking your little girl because he needs so badly to start a manipulative argument. He tells you to “Fuck Off” and calls you a victim and tells you it’s all your fault. He makes false references about your own childhood to try to break you apart. He thinks he can still convince you of things about yourself that arent true, he wants to so bad. You can tell he truly misses those days. When he could gaslight you and play confusing mind games disguised as a conversation you ‘think’ you are having with your husband; about something real. It’s something wrong in your relationship that you actually want to fix so you tirelessly try and try because you want things to be OK again. Over time though, this constant cycle sucks all of your energy and everything that is good out of you, but you don’t know that yet. You feel broken hopeless and destroyed and you dont understand why, but you eventually start to realize that something is very very wrong. You must have missed something somewhere, this no longer even resembles an argument you would have in healthy realtionsuip, probably not even in most unhealthy ones. It’s irrational, it’s confusing, it skips around from one thing to another, its fact twisting, it’s blaming, it’s accusing, it’s getting another person’s pain and problems thrown at you and piled up until you cant breathe at all. At it’s worst, it’s doubting your own perception of anything because of someone telling you that you’re crazy over and over and over. He is starting to convince you that you remember things wrong, and saying that you make stuff up in your head. It’s someone denying what they have said so many times that you can’t be 100% sure of anything. Your trust in yourself is dwindling. You start to ask yourself “Who is this person in the mirror? It’s being told that ‘you’ said what ‘they’ are denying having said, even though they said it to your face two minutes ago. It’s being locked out of your house in the middle of January with shorts and a tank top on. It’s being told you are a horrible person and nobody likes you. It’s being told you cant be trusted to do anything right and then getting guilt tripped because they have to do everything and you do nothing. It’s having your baby used against you, it’s being threatened to have your baby taken to a hotel by someone who is drunk because, “What you deserve is to be in a dark house with the power out, alone.” It’s being told that the cops are coming and it’s because YOU are the actually the abuser and you are scaring them. It’s real FEAR. It’s slamming doors, sighs, silent treatments, and dirty looks. It’s lies aimed to control how other people view you. It’s an argument about money, laundry, what time the kids should be in bed, work, who left the lights on, a dropped dish, spilled milk, the way you said something, a choice you made. It’s everything you do is wrong, and it’s not Real. It’s dealing with it, and on some level knowing, and saying nothing because you know it will make things worse. It’s walking on eggshells every single day. It’s downplaying your sucessess, it’s really jealousy and deep resentment of your accomplishments, but you don’t know that yet. You just aren’t good enough, and that even what you thought was good about yourself isn’t. Your strengths, talents and most admirable traits were the first thing he targeted, but you don’t know that yet. The constant and unending ridicule and forever reminders of even the tiniest mistakes. You are careful never to make a real error in judgment or a bad decision because he will never stop reminding you. He will say “The truth hurts, doesn’t it” He will exploit and expose any weakness or vulnerability you show him, he does not have the capacity to genuinely love, he has no regard for the feelings of other’s. He is a victim when when presented with any information suggesting he is at fault. He is a victim to control you and suck out your compassion even after he breaks you down for hours. He has a huge RED Flag, and it’s one of many you don’t know you missed yet. He is 100% incapable of admitting he did or said anything wrong. He cannot take responsibility, he only knowe how to blame, twist and project. He is not capable of a genuine apology because ‘You’ are the problem and he is the victim. His personality makes him capable of one of the worst and most dangerous forms of abuse. You don’t know it yet but you never did anything wrong, you were never the problem. You didn’t deserve this. It’s slow and intentional and you can’t understand it yet. You think this person loves you and would never try to hurt you. You are so wrong though, and if you don’t figure it out soon you might never recover. How can you be a mom to this beautiful baby if you don’t figure out what has changed in you? How do you get up for work and do your job that “the old you” used to excel and thrive at? How will you and be able to function much longer if you can’t find your confidence and strength, ‘your edge’. You don’t know how to survive without the one thing about you you’ve always counted on when everything else was gone. But it’s no use, it’s not inside you anymore. It’s gone. You ask yourself how could this happen? How could you have let this happen and not see it coming so you could stop it. You start researching and searching for something, anything to fix this. You’ll one day be an expert on this type of personality disorder and the pattern of behavior that goes with it, but not yet. You’ve always been able to fix anything, but you can’t fix this. You hit bottom, and you do the only thing left to do when you are truly helpless. You beg and pray to God and angels to help you. You can’t get through this on your own, you beg for help and look up at the sky while tears roll down your face, you cling to hope. To your complete suprise the help does come, and it quickly, within days. The help sent to you is unfamiliar and strange, it’s almost spiritual. It’s an untravelled path of self realization of how you ended up where you are. But this is no quick fix. You don’t understand for a long time that there is no quick fix for this, and why. Help is sent in all different forms you couldn’t see before, you start a sort of awakening. You start to see signs, coincidences, information, people appear in your life that seem to have been strategiclaly placed there at just the right time. it’s amazing. But the dark realizations keep coming. As you put all the pieces together and start to truly understand what happened, you really hit the fucking bottom. You’ll see later that this is the only way to come back to life, but not yet. This is the lowest and darkest place there is. You could easily stay in that place forever because getting yourself back to where you were, and who you used to be seems more and more impossible the more you come to terms with the reality of it all. There is nothing of what was. You can’t even muster up the courage to ask for help because you are so ashamed of yourself and you are constantly blaming yourself for being so blind and so naive. The worst is over now, but you don’t know it yet. You are still just trying to survive. One thing you come to realize at rock bottom is that you have two choices, and that one of them is giving up and believe me it will be the obvious choice. It seems like the only way out, but it means giving up on your chance to be the Mommy your baby was meant to have, before all this. It means giving up on the “YOU” that you remember being your whole life. I know for an absolute fact that God, the Universe (undoubtabley both) showed me the ONE tiny glimmer of “the old me” that was left, and for good reason. They knew that Giving Up is something “She” would NEVER choose. She would FIGHT and SEARCH and never stop until she found a way, just like she always had; with or without her edge. So that’s what she did, with no idea if it was even possible at all or if it would ever work. Two long painful years of exploration, awakening and trust in “the plan”, and I started feel like me again; the NEW me. The old me was gone and I came mourn ans accept that over time. I hid this journey from every other person on the planet even those closest to me. I faked a smile, worked as hard as I could and hid the ugly, shameful truth. Out of the darkest place I began to emerge a new better version of myself, one I didn’t know was inside of me. It turned out this whole experience was the start of a new phase of my soul’s journey. I had a new purpose, and I understood the “Old Me” wasn’t meant to travel with “Me” this far. So I left her behind and kept going. I understood the laws of attraction and the power to manifest strength where there is none. I now had faith, I realized my gifts, I came back. So much of 4 years of my life is still gone, my daughter is now 5. There are huge parts of these years l still can’t remember. I see pictures of birthdays and special events that I don’t recognize. I will continue to write In hopes of bringing back the precious memories of my little baby girl, memories still covered and buried by the painful ones that I unknowingly blocked. I am a survivor of a long encounter with a monster I could have never seen coming. They don’t teach you about these kind of monsters, even though are the REAL ones. They don’t live under your bed or in the dark scary attic at night. They don’t wear scary masks that you can see or have horns or sharp teeth. They look like whatever you want them to, they look like love and infatuation and friendship, sometimes they look like your parent. They are all the same, they have the same cruel games and tricks up their sleeve to break you. And trust me if you think you are unbreakable or immune to this, think again. I was one of strongest, most confident and intelligent woman I knew at 30, this nightmare started before I turned 32. I hope to someday be ready to educate as many people as I can about narcissistic abuse and about the hundreds of subtle little tactics that people use to slowly destroy you. There ARE red flags and they can be stopped from harming you. If this sounds anything like your life, know you are not alone and know that this is a sign. You were meant to see this. |