

“You’ve been in love with a pretend person. “You realize that the relationship felt real to you, but the faked it the entire time,” says Andrea Schneider, LCSW, author of Soul Vampires: Reclaiming Your Lifeblood After Narcissistic Abuse. But it’s a whole different, er, monster when you’re breaking up with a narcissist, a sociopath, or a combination of both. This was no ordinary relationship therefore, it's no ordinary path to recovery. Getting out of-and, better yet, getting over-any romantic relationship can be a total nightmare.

They waited until they knew how much you loved, wanted, and needed them, and then they cut the cord.Ĭongrats, you've survived a relationship with a narcissist. And finally, after all this, they discarded you. But then came the manipulation: Maybe they started giving you the silent treatment, blaming you for everything that went wrong in the relationship, or bringing other people into the picture to spark jealousy. They came on strong with seduction tactics, showering you with praise and wanting to know everything about you. You’re left picking up the tattered relational pieces, perhaps wondering whether YOU did something wrong.At first, your ex was a dream. Like a master con artist, they will hook you in, get what they want, and then leave you hanging out to dry. In romance, the narcissist is often more enamored with the seduction process than he or she is with you, for you represent a “conquest” to them.

Sweet talk is a form of emotional manipulation calculated to seduce and exploit. In reality, the narcissist wants you to feel special not because they really care about you, but because they want something from you. In interpersonal and/or romantic relationships, narcissists are often quick to profess their admiration of and attraction for you, usually without bothering to really know you as a person.
NARCISSIST COMPULSIVE LIAR HOW TO
Narcissists have the ability to be charming and charismatic when they choose.(13) Like a master salesperson, they know how to say the right things to entice your attention, and steer you into believing their sugar-coated persuasions. “I’m Here for You / I Care About You / I Love You!” You should have called to make sure it wasn’t misfiled.”Ħ. “It’s not our fault that we misplaced your check. All of the manipulative devices above serve to shift scrutiny and responsibility away from the narcissist, so that her or his weaknesses, deficiencies, and failings can remain hidden.(3)(12) Finally, the narcissist may make herself out to be the victim, pointing to any number of difficulties and hard-luck struggles which prevented her from being accountable, and ask for leniency (again being an exception to the rule). Another common response is making excuses - there is always some unexpected or unforeseen circumstance which deterred the narcissist from being responsible. Oftentimes, the narcissist will blame their victims for having caused their own victimization. When this occurs, one of the most common responses of the narcissist is to point fingers, and shift responsibility to others. Inevitably, the self-absorbed and manipulative machinations of a chronic narcissist will catch up with her or him, and land the narcissist in hot water. “Rules are meant to be broken – that’s how you WIN.”ĥ. “I take pride in persuading people to give me exceptions to their rules.” Narcissistic Men Have Higher Testosterone From their self-absorbed perspective, they deserve the privilege of being catered to, and other people’s thoughts and feeling are irrelevant.(5)(9) In the mind-set of some narcissists, they are gods and goddesses, and the world revolves around them. Their barely disguised (or nakedly undisguised) intolerance of “inferiors” is revealed through judgments, criticisms, smugness, sarcasm, marginalization, stereotypes, and overall high condescension. The Mayo Clinic identifies “believing that you are superior” and “expecting to be recognized as superior” as two prominent characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder.(8) In daily interactions, narcissists take satisfaction in reminding you and others that they’re better in large and small ways. Related to the trait of grandiosity is superiority. “It’s not easy being superior to everyone I know.” “I’m Better Than You / I’m Better Than Them!” “What my mother displays in public and how she really is are very different.”Ģ.
