The damage doesn’t happen overnight. It happens slowly.
- You stop voicing your needs.
- You second-guess your memories.
- You apologize for things you didn’t do.
- You feel guilt for being hurt.
- You feel fear for speaking up.
And somewhere along the line, you forget who you were before them.
Narcissists don’t just take love — they take identity. And by the time you realize what’s happened, you feel too confused, too broken, or too scared to leave.
That’s how they win. Not with violence, but with erosion.
5. Walking Away Isn’t Cruel — It’s Necessary
I used to believe that giving up on someone was failure. That if I left, I wasn’t loving hard enough. That it made me cold or selfish.
Now I know better.
Walking away from a narcissist isn’t cruel. It’s self-respect.
Staying in a relationship that makes you sick, anxious, or small isn’t loyalty — it’s self-abandonment. And the truth is, the more you try to fix them, the more broken you become.
You don’t need to save them.
You need to save yourself.
Personal Reflection: What I Would Tell My Past Self
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