Number 6: “You Couldn’t Live Without Me for More Than a Few Minutes.”
This one is cruel, and it is meant to land like a punch. It is not sarcasm; it is a carefully chosen sentence meant to trigger all the insecurities they helped create. They made you dependent and then mocked you for being exactly that. The irony is that they are the ones who cannot survive without someone orbiting around them, like my mother. They need constant attention, emotional reactions, someone to mirror back their importance. But instead of confronting their own dependency, they project it onto you in a way that makes you feel pathetic for even needing anything. If this line hurts, it’s because it’s meant to. It is designed to drag you back into shame so that you forget how far you have come, so that you pause your progress, and so that you start thinking maybe you really aren’t strong enough to be on your own. But the fact that they had to say it at all means they see how strong you are becoming, and that scares them more than they will ever admit.
Number 7: “You Don’t Need to Burden Yourself with Earning Money.”
This doesn’t come from love; it comes from calculation. The narcissist doesn’t want a financially empowered partner or child—they want a dependent one. The moment you start talking about your ambitions, goals, or income, they start downplaying it as unnecessary. They frame it as them taking care of you, but in reality, they are laying the groundwork for financial control. Money means choices, right? Money means freedom, and someone who has both cannot be controlled. That is what they know and what they’re trying to prevent. They want you to stay in the role of someone who needs them to survive because once you have your own, you will clearly see how little they were actually giving. It’s not about easing your burden; it’s about making sure you do not develop the resources to leave. This is how they strip you of agency without raising their voice, and it works silently until one day you realize your entire life revolves around someone who sees your independence as a threat, not as a win.
Number 8: “I Know You Are Planning Something, Aren’t You?”
This line comes out of their nasty mouth when you go quiet, when you stop oversharing, when your eyes no longer give away what’s going on in your head, and when you become unpredictable. They do not like that. Narcissists thrive on excess, so when they start losing emotional visibility, they panic. They stress out and begin projecting their own mindset onto you. They assume you’re scheming, hiding, or strategizing—not because you are, but because that’s how they operate. They are not intuitive; they are paranoid. Now that they can’t predict your moves, they default to suspicion. This is not about what you’re doing; it’s about what they can no longer read. You do not need to actually have a plan; the absence of chaos is enough to make them spiral. Silence is threatening because it means they’re not the center anymore. They do not know what’s going on; they have lost excess, and now they are making noise.
Continue reading on the next page
Sharing is caring!
