How often have you felt that you’re living with a narcissistic personality?
How does it make you feel? Worthless, confused, unsure, and guilty? Are you having trouble making up your mind or finding yourself unable to trust anyone? You may be suffering from narcissistic abuse syndrome.
When you’re the victim of narcissistic abuse in a relationship, you may suffer from narcissistic victim syndrome. The typical symptoms of narcissistic abuse syndrome are helplessness, the feeling of being trapped, and the resultant depression. This can take a huge toll on your mental health.
Living with a narcissistic personality is never easy. You tend to ignore your needs and focus your attention entirely on your partner. So, these narcissistic abuse signs may escape your notice and aggravate to such a level that recovery is harder for you. It’s important that you take care of your mental health as narcissistic abuse can permanently damage your emotional and mental health.
Knowing the symptoms of narcissistic abuse syndrome may help you identify the problem early on. This article is an attempt at helping all the victims of narcissistic abuse to take better care of their mental health.
What is narcissistic victim syndrome?
These are the aftereffects suffered by victims of narcissistic abuse from a partner with a narcissistic personality disorder or NPD. The abuse inflicted may be physical, mental, or emotional of which emotional abuse is the hardest to spot. Subtle forms of emotional abuse by a narcissistic person include gaslighting, manipulation, and undue influence and control of the victim.
Life with a narcissistic person can leave you disoriented and disconnected from reality. As a victim, you may be unable to recognize any of the symptoms of emotional abuse in yourself. You would rather find excuses for the behavior of the narcissistic partner and find faults in your own behavior.
You will find here an exhaustive list of symptoms of abuse victim syndrome.
50 Symptoms of narcissistic abuse syndrome
The occasional appearance of these symptoms may not make you a victim of narcissistic abuse. The narcissistic abuse signs need to be consistent and repetitive and you should display more than one symptom to conclude that you are indeed suffering from narcissistic victim syndrome.
Let’s get started.
- You always find yourself jittery as if you’re walking on eggshells.
- You have a hard time trusting others, not just your narcissistic partner.
- You tend to stay away from the crowd. You’re no longer interested in mingling with people as you feel a sense of shame.
- You have lost your self-confidence, self-respect, and self-esteem.
- You feel a sense of loneliness even when there are people around you. You feel as if no one can understand or empathize with you.
- You find yourself unable to respond to narcissistic abuse. You can neither run away nor fight back. You just freeze up.
- You‘re unable to make up your mind about anything as your confidence and self-worth are completely destroyed by years of narcissistic abuse.
- You always sense a feeling of guilt as if you’ve done something wrong. You tend to blame yourself whenever anything goes wrong.
- You find yourself crying a lot for no apparent reason. You’re emotionally fragile.
- You lose your sense of self, which in psychology is known as identity erosion. This happens so slowly that you don’t realize what’s happening.
- You feel exhausted all the time because of the high levels of emotional stress you suffer from narcissistic abuse. You’re left with no energy to do anything or even think.
- You suffer from panic attacks. This is the natural fallout of feeling unsafe and confused all the time.
- You find yourself contemplative all the time. You live in the past, ruminating on what you’ve done and how you’ve behaved.
- You suffer from cognitive dissonance. This means holding two contradictory beliefs at the same time. You’re so confused that you don’t know what to believe anymore.
- You constantly try to justify your past actions and behavior, even if you’ve done nothing wrong.
- You feel anxious and stressed out all the time. You suffer from claustrophobia and agoraphobia. That is fear of confined spaces and fear of crowds.
- You have trouble focussing on any task or thought. You suffer from brain fog.
- You are paranoid about being controlled and dominated. You are scared about losing yourself. You suffer from the fear of engulfment.
- You oscillate back and forth between loving and hating your narcissistic partner.
- You feel off the rocker or crazy. You feel as if you’re losing your mind.
- You keep replaying past episodes in your mind as in flashbacks. This makes it difficult for you to focus on the present.
- You suffer from insane levels of stress and anxiety. You feel as if you cannot tolerate it anymore and will crumble soon.
- You suffer from extreme levels of depression. No matter how much you try, you cannot pull yourself out of it.
- You have trouble sleeping. This is understandable as your thoughts are so preoccupied with your troubled past.
- You have suicidal thoughts. You know in the depths of your mind that this is wrong but find yourself unable to resist it.
- You find yourself addicted to your narcissistic partner. Despite trying hard, you cannot break free from the relationship.
- You don’t feel happy or content with the life you’re leading. The lack of joy can make you numb and indifferent.
- You seem to have lost control over your hands. They tremble all the time; more when you’re agitated.
- You feel empty inside. As if you can’t feel anything or nothing can affect you. This is a coping mechanism you learn to deal with narcissistic abuse.
- You are perpetually ridden by the feeling of abandonment. And, you feel that you are nothing on your own.
- You lose your appetite and find it hard to eat anything. When you’re in pain, food doesn’t seem to matter to you anymore.
- You have become overly sensitive to sounds. Any kind of sound seems to annoy you, particularly happy ones. The same is the case with lights. You will do anything to stay out of brightly lit areas. You prefer darkness.
- You find it hard to sit or stand still even for a short time. You’re always fidgety and restless. You’re hyperactive in a negative sort of way. This usually makes you feel tired all the time.
- You are so unnerved that you are startled easily.
- You despise every aspect of yourself. You are filled with shame, embarrassment, and self-hate.
- You feel weak physically and fall sick very often. This is a natural consequence of severe mental torment.
- You feel a constriction in your chest area as if you’re suffering from chest pain. This is often mistaken as a heart attack.
- You hate going to sleep because of the incessant nightmares you have to endure. Dreams being an extension of reality, this emotion is understandable.
- You feel revulsion to anything associated with your narcissistic partner. You want to avoid them at all costs. Such as places, people, and things they are fond of.
- You suffer from short-term memory loss. You can’t seem to remember what happened a minute back.
- You sense rage seething beneath your calm exterior all the time. You may take it out on people and things when your partner is not around.
- You feel a deep sense of hopelessness. You feel profound desperation descending on you and you’re unable to shake it off.
- You are always anticipating the worst. You spot danger everywhere and cannot relax or enjoy it.
- You have lost the ability to trust others, not just your narcissistic partner.
- You don’t enjoy sex anymore. It’s just a ritual for you now.
- You feel sad about losing your innocence and ability to trust others. Even when you know that not everyone out there is bad, you can’t bring yourself to trust them.
- You think you’re mentally unstable. You can’t make sense of what is happening to you.
- You’re disconnected from the world around you. You’re not interested in anything, including yourself.
- You prefer to spend time alone. You don’t enjoy company anymore. You’ve got a lot to contemplate and analyze.
- You are highly defensive in your approach to others, especially with people who are aggressive with you.
Final thoughts on narcissistic abuse syndrome
As part of narcissistic victim syndrome, you may experience complete numbness and powerlessness. You feel so vulnerable that you refuse help even if offered with kindness. You feel as if you’ve been violated and raped in a psychological sense.
You may feel vengeful against your narcissistic partner and spend time fantasizing about retaliating. You may feel moody, and paralyzed and may have trouble controlling your impulses. You may go on shopping sprees and end up with things you don’t want and a huge credit card bill.
Narcissistic abuse can be extremely traumatic to the victim, especially since the main objective of your tormentor is to isolate and manipulate you. All these are bound to take a heavy toll on your physical and mental health.
The only way out for you is to identify the symptoms of narcissistic abuse syndrome and get help as early as possible.
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