Some people say survivors are narcissist abuse are codependent. In this article, I will disagree and explain why. Yet if you have benefited from the term “codependency” and feel it does a proper job explaining your situation and helping you move past the relationship with the narcissist, this article is not meant to deter you from using it or to downplay the assistance you have received. Rather, I’m speaking out for my own confusion and frustration about how the term is used, as well as for what I’ve heard from others about how it can also have negative consequences if...

What is an empath? Most definitions of empaths characterize them as highly intuitive people who absorb the emotions of others, often to the point of feeling them themselves. Empaths have a desire to help others and may often feel drained or even physically ill. Some definitions even claim it is almost like a sixth sense.  Scientific studies that are used to explain why empaths exist can only give us indirect evidence.   We know that there are mirror neurons in the brain, which are said to enable us to read and understand each other’s emotions by filtering them through our own...

If you’re reading this, then you have at one time believed– or, more likely, believe right now because you are reading this– that your partner is a narcissist, psychopath, or sociopath whose behavior fits the pattern of a narcissistic abuser. It may even be an obsession at times: “Is my partner a narcissist or not?” If you’re still in the relationship, you probably have doubts. Sometimes, you’re just not sure.  And, let’s be honest, you don’t want to believe it’s true. You may even have them if you’re not in the relationship anymore. The whole thing sounds movie-plottish.  It sounds dramatic....

An Open Letter to My Future Partner: The Nightmare Is Not Over (A Guest Post) Days, weeks, and even months after leaving an abusive relationship, I said to myself—never again. Never again would I trust. Never again would I believe. Never again would I hope. Never again would I love. The monster who terrorized my heart became every man in existence on the planet. The woman I was before—the woman who believed there was someone good, honest, and worthy—was destroyed in the battle against good and evil that existed between an empath and a narcissist. As time went on, pieces...

There seems to be an endless list of characters with double lives and a willingness to cause immeasurable harm. We as movie-goers never seem to tire of films in which men or women who look perfectly normal to us at the beginning turn on other characters to betray or destroy in horrendous fashion those who love and trust them the most. Here’s a list of thirteen films about narcissists you should definitely see. 13 Movies about Narcissists In the descriptions below of each film, I won’t specifically give away who the narcissists or psychopaths are or what the relationships to...

In no other form of abuse does there seem to be so much concern about talking about the abuser and how it might make the abuser feel if we call out his or her behaviors and give them a label. Why does it matter so much that survivors of narcissistic abuse end up labeling people narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths?  Why not just refer to the abusers as “abusers?”   On Labeling People Narcissists: It’s Not About the Abuser It was a mental health professional who first used the term “narcissistic abuse syndrome,” based on a series of symptoms she began...

Step into the funhouse. The key feature of narcissistic abuse that distinguishes it from other types of abuse is the narcissist’s intricate construction of a false reality to manipulate people in social and romantic relationships. In the funhouse, when you catch a glimpse of yourself in one of the mirrors, you will recognize yourself, and yet you will look nothing like the person you once were. You recognize the illusion for what it is, you see the distortion staring back at you, and yet it’s not your universe and no matter how many mirrors you stare into, none of them reflect...