What to do if you suspect someone you know is involved with a narcissist:
First of all let’s cover the Don’ts:
* Do not underestimate how dangerous, manipulative and conniving a narcissist can be.
Too many times people confuse narcissism with ordinary abusive behaviour or someone with an inflated ego. A true narcissist is cruel beyond comprehension and can cause immeasurable emotional and physical damage. They will stop at nothing to control their victim and that could include death.
* Never make the victim feel they are responsible for their own abuse.
By saying things like: I would never have stayed, I would have seen he was an asshole a mile off, he was attracted to your co-dependency, etc.
No one knows what it is like to be manipulated by a narcissist unless they have been there.
Narcissists are attracted to strong, competent, self sufficient women with a strong sense of responsibility and moral fiber. What woman wouldn’t want to be described in those terms? The last thing a narcissist wants is someone needy or someone any one could have, she has to be a “trophy” and confident enough to keep his narcissistic supply coming. Plus the more self sufficient and confident she is the more determined the narcissist will be to “break” her, if he can make her totally dependent on him it is the ultimate in NS.
* Do not withdraw your support in an effort to make them choose between you and the narcissist, or in anger because they won’t leave or went back.
Withdrawing your support is giving the narcissist exactly what they want – total control over their victim and makes the victim dependent on the narcissist and reinforces what the narcissist is telling them; that they (the narcissist) is the only one they can rely on, the only one who truly loves them and that they are flawed in some way, why else would someone they cared about turn their back on them?
* Do not expect the victim to return to their “old self” immediately after leaving the narcissist.
The longer a person is involved with a narcissist the more damage is done to the person’s self confidence, their esteem and even their perception of reality. That does not heal quickly, sometimes never. The victim has been abused at a soul level, comparable to a prisoner of war, a rape victim, a hostage; they can probably not even adequately describe what they have been through. In many cases they have blocked much of the abuse or minimized it; which is typical of a person in highly dangerous situation and was part of their attempts at survival.
Many people leaving a relationship with a narcissist suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and should get help from a professional for that, someone who is familiar with Narcissism and the effect on the victims.
*Do not believe anything the narcissist tells you, he will try anything to discredit the victim and make them appear to be the crazy one and it is the narcissist who is the victim.
You can almost guarantee that whatever the narcissist is saying is the exact opposite of the truth. If he is saying she was unfaithful; it was him cheating. If he says she spent all the money; it was he who spent money.
Remember the narcissist is an award winning actor, he’s been doing it his whole life, if he does admit to any wrong doing it will be part of his plans to manipulate the situation in his favor.
*Do not show the narcissist any sympathy!
One of the tactics often used by a narcissist (especially when he feels he is losing ground) is to use other people as pawns in his efforts to control his victim.
The victim needs no reasons to feel sorry for the narcissist, if they see you are sympathetic to his cause they will doubt they are doing the right thing by leaving.
*Do not be overly critical of the narcissist to the point of the victim feeling they must defend him; remember the narcissist uses guilt as a means of manipulation. You don’t want the victim to feel she has done anything wrong by confiding in you.
The To-Do List:
*Research Narcissism
There are hundreds of support groups, forums, advice sites and sites giving professional opinions.
No one can understand the power a narcissist has over his victim or how they gained that control or why a victim finds it so hard to leave. Unless you have been there it is impossible, but by reading other people’s accounts of their experiences you will come to realize it is very common and perhaps develop some compassion for the loved one you are trying to help.
*Reinforce that the victim is NOT responsible for the abuse, it is the narcissist that is sick and they can not save him.
You will have to do this often, once out of your company and back home with the narcissist the narcissist will work over time to extinguish any confidence the victim might have acquired while with you. It is a constant roller coaster ride in emotional hell and you might be the only person who can counter the insanity of living with a narcissist.
*Document
When the victim tells you of abuse, infidelity or any other mistreatment by the narcissist make note of it; if there is any physical abuse try to take pictures even if she refuses to press charges. It is actually best if she doesn’t keep records herself because the narcissist IS going through her stuff whether she realizes it or not and if he finds it he will destroy it and “punish” her in some way. But this information will come in handy in the future as:
- Proof there was abuse should she have to go to court or get a restraining order.
- A reminder for the victim of what she had to live with when her resolve weakens.
- Proof of the truth in defense of the lies the narcissist will inevitably tell anyone who will listen.
*Be There
I know it is frustrating to hear the victim cry about the abuse and then they don’t leave or they leave and go back, but you need to be her voice of reason and sanity. You must understand that narcissists are experts at making someone feel crazy.
A woman in an abusive relationship leaves an average of 7 times before leaving for good. As long as he can make her feel that she has some power to change things she will go back, she needs to be reinforced that she has indeed done all she or any woman could do and no one deserves to be abused.
*Believe them!
Once they opening up and start sharing some of the things the narcissist did, believe them, no matter how bizarre it may sound and reiterate it is the narcissist that is sick, not them!
*Listen
If they are still with the narcissist all you can do is be there to listen and reinforce that: They are NOT crazy.
They are strong.
They are not alone.
They CAN leave and when they do you will be there to help.
If they have left they will need to rehash the relationship trying to make sense of it, trying to find answers to why something so wonderful turned so ugly.
Quite often while in “survival mode” the victim will block or minimize a lot of the abuse because they are overwhelmed or simply can not accept how horrible the situation is. Once they are away from the narcissist and the danger emotions and memories will come flooding back and the brain needs to acknowledge and accept what happened in order to start the healing process. It might be necessary for the victim to relive some events over and over again.
*Allow the victim time to grieve the loss.
Too many times the people close to the victim get frustrated that they are so sad and “taking too long” grieving and should “just get over it”. That they should be happy they are away from the abuse.
Remember this is probably what they thought was the love of their life and not only is the relationship over but they have to accept it was all one sided; the narcissist is incapable of love; they were in love with a sham. The narcissist will never admit to any fault, and over time more and more of the lies he told will surface reopening the wounds.
Nine times out of ten the narcissist will be involved in another relationship very quickly and will be on his best behaviour and doing everything he can to rub his ex victim’s nose in it.
Either that or he will stock his victim, call incessantly, write letters, anything he can think of to get to her and weaken her resolve.
You can’t stop the victim from going back, but it is less likely to happen if they don’t feel alone. The narcissist can be very convincing especially if the victim is alone, depressed and filled with self doubt.
Your Comments!!!!!!
Written by Carrie Reimer. This article first appeared in Carrie’s blog Lady with a Truck.
Image courtesy of Serge Bertasius at freedigitalphotos.net
Another great post and just what I needed when all my self doubting thoughts come back to haunt me.
The problem with any mental health issues is the there’s no outward bruising and scarring and it’s difficult for others to understand. Last week I was really ill with a bad cold and even with all the symptoms there was very little sympathy so something as difficult as PTSD we suffer after the wake of a narc… you’re basically on your own. Stay strong and keep reading
Oh, crap! That’s a powerful and down to the point advice!
Not many people will understand it, though as by the default, we are so naive and falsely “tolerant.” Most women are conditioned from birth to be understanding, gentle and forgiving when it comes to the male biological differences. Yes, we are biologically differently made but we are humans and we should have brains controlling our biologics.
Understanding emotional abuse and helping emotional abuse victims is far from perfect, even far from being recognized in the 21st century. Some of us know a little bit more but most will not even recognize how harmful emotional abuse is. Most of us understand and will rush to help if they see bruises but most of the time there are no physical symptoms of emotional abuse and manipulative behavior is often impossible to proof.
Moreover, breaking free from emotionally abusive relationship and learning about covert narcissism opened my eyes and I can’t help but see dysfunction and abuse in other people’s relationship but rushing with my knowledge and trying to make people aware or God forbid – trying to rescue them – leads nowhere because victims don’t want to know they’re victims. Victims will sometimes cover up to the great extent, pretend, excuse, try to mend it and most of the time all this is subconscious.
We are far from equal treatment of men and women and frankly I don’t ever want to live in the world that men and women will be treated exactly the same, meaning that we are different by the Nature. Women are design to be nurturing and sustaining the young offspring whereas men are necessary for starting the new life but then really their role is biologically done! If they disappear; their offspring will survive. If a mother dies and no one else takes over her biological role of feeding and caring for the baby, a human baby is gone, too. There’s no way it can survive on its own.
Whatever you say, however you understand this, women are stronger, live longer because even in 21st century the Nature is the Nature and that’s the way it is. In the 21st century there are ways of seriously interfering in the Nature ways and I’m not to offend anyone here, but yes, it’s possible to change physically someone from female to male or the other way around, but that is not the Nature way.. This is human technological and medical advances. Also, in the same way, a mother is not essential in a baby survival but that is again technological and medical advances. Yes, you can feed baby formula now but that’s not how Nature designed us.
Like with anything else, technological and medical advances are always ahead of the human kind and the fact that we now have internet and have blogs and groups as this one is great but in a way, this group and the blogger writers are ahead of the general population understanding of psychological mechanism and processes.
I don’t know, if I got my point across or not but thank you for this blog and to all of those who still feel that they are victims of narcissism, particularly covert one, be brave and take your time. It hurts like hell to acknowledge that we have been duped but it is the truth and from that point it only gets better but it takes time, courage and hard work. Love you all!
I went no contact about 14 months ago. His Golden Child is our oldest who has lost her son, when he was 19. She is the weakest link. He manipulated her to get me to talk to him. I did, but didn’t last long, to prove a point. He is out of state in a medical building. One love bombing email & 3 more getting worse & worse. I told him his divorce papers will eventually be on their way. He reply was: “No matter where you go, what you say or do, I will take care of you!” 8 days ago, I came home, with my friend, a taxi driver. He found my door open a foot. Some one ransacked my entire office. The apt. office will just replace the lock with another lock that can be picked. 4 days later, thank God, I barricaded my door, someone tried to come in. The door opened an inch & stopped. The police took from Wed. (They didn’t believe me.) Told me to stop calling. Called him the victim & asked if I wanted it. When, they came on Sat, I couldn’t speak civilly, so I told the officer to get off my property. He politely said OK & left. No, one gives a dang. Then, I needed to become his POA, something to do with his medical coverage. When, I told him I needed to be his POA, he stopped emailing & ghosting again. I called benefits, for him & they told me I’m already POA & now it’s going into POA abused. The POA before was dismissed by the bank, he stole everything. I know, who he’s & his wife. I’m moving, changing my phone number, once I do. Since my daughter still talks to him, I blocked her & her husband. I trusted my doctor’s & the police & that was a big mistake. The health care is looking into another doctor who understands. My trust is gone & I will never tell another person my whole story. Doctor’s, case workers & specialist broke my confidentiality, so who do you trust? Another doctor or office manager is lying through their teeth. The apt. office has made two years unbearable. Manage to heal somewhat, but I’m so tired of living in a world of abuse!! I gave men up for Lent!!