In fact, living with this person each day, I even lost my voice in that the more I say would be the less I was heard and I did not realize how at the age of 25 I would have fallen for a narcissist and was trapped in my own mind and in the life cycle of thinking that I was in love with my abuser.
It is important to note that, I had sacrificed over and over again until there was nothing left of me to give only to be discarded like a piece of trash. This was not the first time I had felt this way; I can name at least four or five occasions that I was taken down this cycle unconsciously but I vowed that this time was going to be my last.
THE PATH OF A NARCISSIST
I tell you, when you first start any form of relationship with a narcissist, you will likely think you are the luckiest person in the world. That is because, for the first couple of weeks, they are the best friend or the best partner a person could ever ask for. Practically, for those first two weeks to a month, they are the perfect person, and you feel lucky to have them in your life, but that changes quickly as the relationship continues.
So, after that first couple of weeks, what is referred to as the mask phase, the mask will eventually come off as the narcissist starts to change their tone because the abuser feels like they have already reeled the victim in.
It is imperative you know that the narcissist continues the process by breaking the victim down, causing trauma, hurt, abuse, and pain. But in the midst of all of this, the abuser still leaves the person questioning themselves and their reality. After all, the narcissist has treated the victim so well before; this could not be happening now, right? These are some of the questions the victims start to ask themselves.
Unfortunately, it only continues to get worse as the narcissist will start to isolate the victim from others and will always draw the victim away from their friends, family and the activities that the person have always enjoyed, becoming emotionally and sometimes even physically abusive to keep the victim under their control. And over time, the victim starts to fall into a type of Stockholm syndrome; always forgiving the narcissist or making excuses for their behavior….......