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13 Effects of Being Raised by a Narcissist

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Disclaimer: This is not meant to be a comprehensive guide, but a starting point for your own exploration. Likewise, I am not a professional, but a survivor of childhood narcissistic abuse (among other types). I write about my own experiences, observations, and what I have learned through research.

Yesterday was World Narcissistic Abuse Awareness Day, which inspired me to write about the signs that you may have been raised by a narcissist for those who are still unsure or questioning. If this resonates with you, I encourage you to do your own research on Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), narcissistic parents, narcissistic abuse, and Narcissistic Victim Syndrome to learn more. You can reclaim your life, and educating yourself is the first step.

The following are common effects brought on by the specific abuse tactics used by narcissists:

1. You Feel You Don’t Have Rights

Because you were treated like a “second class citizen” by your parent, it’s natural to grow up feeling like you don’t have any rights. For all intents and purposes, you didn’t have rights in your childhood home. Your parent did not grant you the freedom to express yourself or your feelings and opinions, explore your talents and interests, make mistakes and learn from them, set and maintain boundaries, or anything else children and adolescents are supposed to do to prepare themselves for adulthood. Due to this, you are compelled to explain yourself and your actions, justify your feelings, and you are reluctant to voice your opinion, because you feel you are constantly being judged.

2. You Feel Guilty for Having Basic Human Needs

Narcissists cannot focus on anything other than themselves, which is why they find everyone else’s emotions and needs annoying. And they resent having to take care of anyone because, as the perpetual victim, they believe they are the ones who should be taken care of at all times, so they treat their children (and their needs) as nuisances. This makes you feel guilty for having the same basic needs everyone else has, such as food, emotional stability, or medical care when you are sick or injured. Moreover, it leaves you feeling like a burden and believing that wanting even your most basic needs to be met is somehow selfish. (It’s not.)

3. You Find Boundaries Confusing

Due to their unparalleled sense of entitlement and an astounding inability to view you as an individual and not a mere extension of themselves, your parent refused to allow you to have any boundaries, which makes it difficult to understand, set, and maintain them in adulthood. Further, if you had at least one narcissistic parent, you were forced to “take up as little space” as possible to prevent them from turning into a puddle of tears or suddenly exploding on you any time you expressed a need or emotion. This resulted in more blurring of boundaries, as you had to become your parent’s “caretaker” to try to avoid their meltdowns.

4. You Were “Parentified”

Narcissists do not mature with age, and they often put their children in the position of having to “parent” them. If you took on the responsibility of being a caregiver for your parent in any way, for any reason, as a child, you were parentified, and it likely reinforced the notion that your needs were insignificant, or at least secondary, to the needs of your parent. As an adult, you are overly concerned with being selfish and view your needs as a burden to others, so you organize your life around everyone else’s needs and desires.

5. You’re a Chronic “People Pleaser”

Because your parent’s wants and needs were always of the utmost importance, you were conditioned to bury your own needs in order to better serve them. Another contributing factor is that narcissistic parents continually force their children to seek approval by setting an expectation, then “moving the goalpost” once the expectation has been met. If your parent made you feel like you had to earn their love, as an adult, you probably feel compelled to prove you are worthy of love and affection.

6. You Are a Perfectionist

Similarly, narcissistic parents make their children feel like they will never be “good enough.” Because they forced you to earn their conditional love, you became a perfectionist as a way to bolster your chances of pleasing them and finally being good enough. On the other hand, if you were like me, you became a perfectionist to prove to yourself and others that your parent was wrong about you. Either way, it’s about earning your right to be in the world, as you were raised to believe your worth was contingent upon the tenuous value your parent placed on you, rather than being taught your inherent value as a human who exists on this planet.

7. You “Feel” What Others Are Feeling

In many cases, children of narcissists develop very highly attuned empathy. This is a survival mechanism. When you have a volatile parent who becomes enraged at the slightest provocation, and sometimes for no discernible reason at all, you become hyper-aware of their facial expressions, body language, and energy in an attempt to avoid being abused.

8. You Second-Guess Yourself… A Lot

The goal of the narcissist is to keep their target off balance, and the abuse they dole out has the specific purpose of inducing uncertainty. If your parent consistently questioned your emotions and actions, dictated how you should feel, and challenged your perception of your own experiences, you learned you couldn’t trust yourself. Additionally, narcissists convince their targets that they deserve to be abused. This manifests as deep insecurity in a child who grows up to believe that everything is their fault and they can’t do or say anything right, which often results in debilitating self-doubt in adulthood.

9. You Are Indecisive

Because your parent saddled you with an exceptional sense of self-doubt, you have trouble making decisions. This is due to the scrutiny you likely endured for making even the smallest mistake as a child. You become paralyzed with fear, and you think and rethink over all of the possible outcomes, until you become so overwhelmed that you decide not to make a choice at all.

10. You Have Trust Issues

If your parent was narcissistic, they conditioned you not to trust your own feelings, instincts, and perceptions of reality. Besides that, you probably also learned you couldn’t trust your parent at an early age. When you can’t trust your own parents or yourself, you will not be able to trust others either. (Learning to trust yourself first is key.)

11. You Are Fiercely Independent

This may seem counter-intuitive due to trauma bonding (a powerful emotional attachment between an abuser and their target, which forms as a result of the cycle of abuse); however, if you learn you cannot rely on or trust anyone, you may grow to be fiercely independent. Another reason for this is the constant criticism to which you were undoubtedly subjected. If you were endlessly scrutinized for the way you did things, you probably learned to do them on your own, with no one watching, to avoid being ridiculed.

12. You Are Profoundly Lonely

When they’re not being abusive, narcissistic parents are neglectful. This can result in what I often refer to as a “profound sense of loneliness.” I believe it is the combination of abuse and neglect, along with never feeling like you quite fit in anywhere, because you are convinced you are a burden, strange, stupid, incompetent, lazy, crazy, etc. Narcissists are basically empty shells, devoid of positive emotion and love, which leaves their children feeling like they are on their own, because they are.

13. You Have a Distorted Self-Image

Living with a narcissist will leave you with a distorted self-image physically, mentally, and intellectually. When the narcissist is also your parent, the damage can be catastrophic. Because they do not allow their children to explore and acknowledge their talents and interests, you probably feel like you are still “finding yourself” well into adulthood. This leads to difficulty even acknowledging your talents, skills, abilities, and positive traits, as well as discomfort with receiving and accepting compliments, because you were prohibited from doing such things by your parent. In addition, the abuse tactics favored by narcissists cause low self-esteem and a lack of self confidence in their targets, which makes it nearly impossible to view yourself with any accuracy.

Spreading Awareness

Narcissistic abuse is highly misunderstood and particularly treacherous, yet extraordinarily prevalent in society as a whole, which is why awareness must be spread. Because this type of abuse can be so subtle, and its perpetrators are oftentimes very charming or even charismatic, the average person has difficulty recognizing and understanding it, but its effects are devastating, nevertheless. Please remember that it was not your fault. You didn’t deserve to be abused by the people who were supposed to love and protect you. Narcissists are abusive by nature, so there was nothing you could have done as a child to affect their behavior. Your parent is solely responsible for his or her own abusive actions. The simple fact is that you were born to someone who can’t stop being abusive, and that is their defect, not yours.

It’s Not You; It’s Them

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When you have been abused, the tendency is to blame yourself. Why?

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As with anything, there are multiple reasons victims of abuse might blame themselves. For one, people who are abusive must try to make their targets believe it is their fault, so they will be less likely to fight back or tell someone what is happening to them. If you think you are the cause, why would you tell someone about it?

For example, when I was a child, I was so convinced I was to blame for my father’s rage and other abusive behaviors, I never would have dreamed of telling anyone for fear they would agree with him and confirm that I deserved it. Instead, I did everything I possibly could to prove him wrong, so I could receive positive reinforcement from others without having to admit the awful truth about myself: that I was actually an “incompetent idiot” who “couldn’t do anything right” and would likely “never amount to anything.”

The narcissist must believe, and therefore, convince you the problem is “not them; it’s you.” Realistically, it’s the other way around, and they are never going to change, because they refuse to acknowledge anything that’s wrong with them. And you can’t fix what you won’t admit is broken. Here are some other reasons you might blame yourself, but I promise that it’s not you. It’s them. 

Narcissistic Injury

Narcissistic injury is caused when the narcissist perceives an attack or a threat (real or imagined) against them, generally leading to narcissistic rage. Because they perceive something you said or did as a personal attack, they believe they are justified in abusing you because, in their mind, you started it. That’s right. Take it all the way back to the playground, because that is the mentality with which you are now dealing. You said something to hurt their feelings, whether that was your intention or not, so now it’s on. In reality, what you said could have been totally innocuous, but if they perceive it as an attack, a threat, or even just a mild criticism, they will feel well within their rights to retaliate against you with abuse. Healthy people do not “retaliate” against others, especially over something as insignificant as a mistake, misunderstanding, or criticism. This is how you know there is something wrong with them, not you.

But the Narcissist is Never Wrong

You and I both know this is definitely not the case; however, the narcissist does not. Aside from being a useful tactic in ensuring your silence, victim blaming also shifts responsibility for their inappropriate actions to someone else. This is necessary to maintain the facade of their “false self.” As I said, they think you deserve whatever they dish out because they can’t possibly be wrong. Reasonable people know they are flawed, because no one is perfect, and they accept that they will make occasional mistakes. However, when your ego is that fragile due to the pressures of constantly hiding your inadequate “true self,” it is far too painful to admit your shortcomings, which brings us back to narcissistic injury and narcissistic rage. They will never stop abusing other people, because they will always find a way to make it their victim’s fault. That’s how you know you are not actually to blame, and the problem is theirs alone.

The Narcissist is Always the Victim

In keeping with the theme, the narcissist is a perpetual victim…of the world, so of course their abuse of others is always warranted. The world (and everyone in it) obviously owes them something, and they are going to collect by any means necessary. This is probably compounded by the fact that they were likely victims of similar abuse in their own childhoods, so they really do feel like the perpetual victim of circumstance, because they can’t understand that they have the power to change their lives now. Further, when their own abusive and exploitative actions come back to bite them, it provides them with the ideal excuse to play the victim again. I think narcissists believe that being the constant victim automatically absolves them of any responsibility for their actions. “Look what you made me do!” Sound familiar? It’s all about shifting the blame to the target and becoming the victim themselves, so they never have to be wrong or accountable for the consequences of their behavior. Healthy people won’t try to destroy you over a simple disagreement, misunderstanding, or mistake. On the other hand, those who take everything as a personal affront will, which is another way you can tell that it’s not you. It’s them.

Gaslight Special on Aisle Me

Narcissists love a good gaslight, and they won’t hesitate to tell you all of their excuses for abusing you straight out because, as we’ve established, it is all your fault anyway. For instance, if you could just learn to keep your mouth shut, they wouldn’t have to teach you a lesson. You know how much it bothers them when you question them, and you probably even did it on purpose because you like the drama. Or maybe it’s because they love you so much that it makes them uncontrollably angry when you disagree with them, talk to someone else, find a hobby, get a job, make a new friend, or have any outside interests at all. They can’t control their reactions because they are so passionate about you. (Don’t be flattered by that, by the way. It’s not real.) Just remember, we all have emotional reactions to things other people say and do. The difference is, healthy people don’t act on their emotions in an abusive way. Narcissists, abusers, and other toxic people shift the blame for their actions to others, so they don’t have to take responsibility for their abusive behavior. That’s how you know it’s definitely them and not you.

Victim Blaming Society

In addition, there is no doubt that we live in a victim blaming society. You quite literally can’t get away from it. When a woman is sexually assaulted, why does the first question people tend to ask have to do with the clothes she was wearing? Or, does it really matter if she was drunk or how much she had to drink that night? Is a woman ever actually “asking for it”? (Just in case you’re stumped here, the answer is a solid “no.” Unless she literally asks you for sex, she’s not asking for it. Case closed.) Why are there people who blame the victims of police brutality instead of blaming the police for using excessive force and not training officers to diffuse and deescalate situations? That is, after all, their job. To put it simply, those who value traits like loyalty and obedience to authority over compassion and empathy are more likely to blame the victims of crimes or abuse, rather than the actual perpetrators. Therefore, it stands to reason that society would have a vested interest in pushing the victim blaming narrative. (Read more on societal gaslighting.)

The Perfect Target

As I touched on in my last blog post, narcissists look for a specific combination of characteristics they can exploit. Universally, they choose people who are authentic, trustworthy, trusting, optimistic, kind, empathetic, compassionate, responsible, hardworking, respectful, respectable, generous, and vulnerable. People who possess these traits are likely to project them on to others, as well as be more prone to look for the best in everyone, and narcissists use this to their advantage. Does it seem as though there is anything wrong with a person who possesses all of these wonderful qualities? I would argue that being such a person actually means there is something very right about you. If you have these traits and a history of abuse, you’re basically the perfect target, because the narcissistic abuser doesn’t have to spend the time to groom you. All of that hard work has already been done for them by your previous abuser, which means more time to play with your emotions and suck the supply right out of you. It also means it takes much less effort to convince you that you’re the problem, because someone else has already done that for them, too.

It’s Not You

All of this muddies the waters, blurs the lines, and creates intense confusion, as it is meant to do. The fact that our culture often casts doubt on victims, does not make it right. We have been brainwashed to believe it’s warranted in certain cases, but it never is. The victim is never to blame for the behavior of the perpetrator of the crime or abuse, because that implies that anyone has any power or control over the actions of other people, and that is unequivocally untrue. In fact, that is a flagrant control tactic used by oppressors against those they are oppressing.

Please do not ever blame yourself. You do not deserve to be abused or mistreated in any way or by anyone. You deserve to be loved and treated with kindness and compassion. Take an honest look at the situation, relationship, and the other person or people involved before you continue to try to fix something you didn’t break in the first place. Please believe me. The problem is not you because people are interchangeable to narcissists and other abusers. All they care about is getting their supply or fuel from you. And that is how you know for sure that it’s not you; it’s them.

The Mourning After

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I’m still deep in mourning…again. Only, it’s not over the death of a loved one.

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I’m mourning the loss of yet another illusion of a longtime friendship with someone who supposedly loved me and wanted the best for me. In hindsight, I’m not sure I believe that was ever the case. This was not just anyone, but someone I have considered “family” for a long time, who let me know that sentiment was not mutual in no uncertain terms, despite claiming otherwise for years. Since the “final straw” incident, I have come to the harsh realization through dissecting and reflecting on the entirety of our relationship, that I have been confusing this person’s now evident disdain for me with love, because that’s what I was taught love is supposed to feel like. Now I know better.

This person masquerades as caring and optimistic, yet is quite critical and judgmental in actuality. There have been plenty of times throughout our decades-long friendship when their judgments have made me uneasy, but I was conditioned to believe being overly critical and judgmental were “normal” and that I was somehow “abnormal” for having a natural reaction to the toxicity it created around me. Those who are truly caring, positive, and optimistic are not critical and judgmental, nor do they invalidate other people’s feelings and experiences, because they are more interested in building others up than tearing them down. On the other hand, negative and toxic people must tear others down to build themselves up.

This is yet another person in my life who never genuinely knew me, and has refused to get to know me, because the real me doesn’t fit their narrative. They insist on telling me (and others) who I am. I suppose I’m guilty of the same in one way, though, as I kept buying their front when the truth was glaringly obvious. There is no need to “talk it out” with them, because they told me I was “overreacting” and to “lighten up” the last time I tried to express my feelings. I can’t allow my emotions to be mocked, minimized, or invalidated by this person again. The last time was the last time I will walk into that trap. From now on, I will protect my heart.

I’m angry. Not with them, but with myself for being so willfully blind to reality for so long. Looking back on the overall relationship, I now recognize all the same patterns I’ve excused and ignored for years, and this is just another person who seems to get a kick out of my inner turmoil… Yet another “friend” who has been using me to feel better about their own life for a very long time. I can’t express how much it hurts every time I realize someone has never cared for me the way I have cared for them. And it just keeps happening.

It’s been nearly two weeks since I authored the first post that was inspired by this agonizing reawakening. This one has been almost as devastating to accept as the death of my marriage was. Almost. I even had to take a mini-break from Facebook, because I couldn’t stand watching the facade crumble before my eyes, while everyone else is still lapping up the lies. I couldn’t take knowing what I know, but watching everything go on as usual. (Truth be told, if it weren’t for work and support groups, I’d take a permanent vacation from Facebook.)

Source: pixabay.com

I finally took an honest look at the whole relationship with fresh, educated eyes, and I cannot ignore the red flags any longer. (I’ve been doing that my entire life, and look where it’s gotten me.) I won’t be placing people who continue to inflict harm on me ahead of my own needs anymore. It doesn’t matter who they are, what our “relationship” is, how difficult their lives have been, or how long we’ve known each other. I’m no martyr.

There is legitimately only one person left from my past who has the power to wreck me like this, so there’s that bright side I’m always looking for, I suppose! Maybe soon I’ll be “unwreckable,” but only because there won’t be anyone left that I care enough about to trust? If I literally trust no one, I can’t be hurt anymore. Right? (Don’t worry. I’m only slightly serious.)

When you grow up with a narcissistic (or otherwise toxic and abusive) family dynamic, you are conditioned to distrust your own thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. If you have even one parent who persistently engaged in gaslighting, you likely knew you couldn’t trust them either, which makes it impossible to trust anyone else. If your other parent was also an abuser or an enabler, where did that leave you? If you can’t trust yourself or your own parents, who can you trust? How do you even know what trust and honesty look like?

To contribute to the trust issues, growing up under the influence of prolonged familial toxicity leaves you vulnerable to further victimization throughout your life by other abusers. Unfortunately, narcissists and other abusive people are excellent at finding targets to victimize. They look for specific characteristics to exploit, like kindness, compassion, honesty, authenticity, vulnerability, and generosity. People who possess these traits are likely to project them on to others, as well as be more prone to look for the best in everyone, and narcissists use this to their advantage. This, coupled with a history of abuse, makes for a perfect target. If you’ve already been groomed, it takes much less time and effort to convince you that you’re the problem. Besides, they can play the hero or healer to you…at first. But I digress. (This could be the potential start to another kind of post altogether.)

I think what I need most right now is a hard reset. I need to learn to actually trust myself before I can even think about trusting anyone else, including those from my past. (I’m finding I have a great deal more work to do in that respect.) If I have no faith in my perception, how will I know when someone is displaying signs of dishonesty, for instance? If I can’t trust my own instincts, how will I know if something about a person or a situation “feels” wrong? If I can’t trust what I feel, how can I keep myself safe? At this particular moment, my solution is to exercise extreme caution with everyone and trust no one. I know that’s not completely healthy, but it may be safest…at least for now. Once I’ve done enough healing to have confidence in myself, I will be able to trust my perceptions of other people. What’s more, I will begin to attract and be drawn to healthier, more positive people who will be worthy of my trust.

To read about how I decide when to go “no contact” with someone, check out my previous post. 

To learn about gaslighting on a societal scale, please see my most recent HuffPost piece. 

Reality of Lies

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“Waking Up” from Abuse

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[bctt tweet=”Awakening to the reality that your entire life has been a lie is about the harshest wake up call you can get.” via=”no”]

Awakening to the reality that your entire life has been a lie is about the harshest wake up call you can get. I speak from experience. I’ve actually done it twice now.

The first time I “woke up” was when I finally realized I was the survivor of childhood narcissistic abuse. It wasn’t until I had my own kids that I started to understand how troubled my childhood really was. I had to stumble upon the terms “narcissistic personality disorder” and “narcissistic abuse” myself, and learn about them on my own. Let me tell you, though, the pieces finally began falling into place and I’m grateful they did. No matter how agonizing this journey is, has been, or will get, it’s worth the discomfort — however extreme. The alternative is way worse.

What makes narcissistic abuse extraordinarily treacherous is that it’s not easily detected. Not by its victims, at least not at first (or at all in many cases), and certainly not by people who have never experienced or witnessed it firsthand. Additionally, it changes the way you think about everything: the way you perceive the narcissist, the world, YOURSELF… When the victim is the child of the narcissist, the effects of the abuse are insidious. Those of us unlucky enough to be born to one or more parent with this horrible affliction are indoctrinated into the narcissist’s sick and twisted vision of reality from birth, taught that it’s “normal” and that if we have a negative reaction to their abuse, we are somehow defective (i.e. too sensitive, overly dramatic, manipulative, etc.), and everyone else would agree with them.

[bctt tweet=”What makes narcissistic abuse extraordinarily treacherous is that it’s not easily detected.” via=”no”]

We are left to pick up the pieces of our broken senses of self, along with whatever self-esteem and self-confidence we can manage to scrape together and hoard from whatever sources (not always healthy or positive ones) we can find, if any. We carry the burden of waking up alone to the arduous reality that we now likely must spend the rest of our lives recovering from the damage of a childhood filled with lies, betrayal, and oftentimes sadistic abuse at the hands of severely broken people who happened to be the ones charged with “loving” and “protecting” us. They were far too damaged to do either of those things, so they took their pain out on helpless children who didn’t ask to be born into the dysfunction in the first place.

What’s worse? Some never wake up from it at all. They go on believing they deserve to be mistreated, so that’s the treatment they continue to receive, as it is what they will accept and allow. They spend their lives just trying to be good enough and never feeling like they measure up. Or, they go on to perpetrate the same kind of abuse. That’s the tragic legacy of toxic families.

(Then, if you’re like me, you awaken a second time to realize you married into the same kind of toxicity, and you now must make a second escape. Or if you didn’t get married as a “child” to flee the abuse you grew up in the way I did, you recognize you have gone from one abusive partner to the next. This is not a coincidence, but more on that in a later post.) 

[bctt tweet=”The more proficient the narcissist, the better they are at hiding their true nature from people…” via=”no”]

The more proficient the narcissist, the better they are at hiding their true nature from people they don’t have to spend a significant amount of time with. Moreover, they can be exceedingly charming, so other people can never quite believe how cruel they can be in actuality, because they’re always so pleasant to be around. Narcissists even know how to make you feel special and important (for a time, anyway). In fact, that’s how they lure you in.

Combine that with their astonishing ability to turn any situation around, somehow become the victim, and make the actual victim look like the “crazy one” (or even the abuser) to the casual observer, and it isn’t difficult to understand how these situations become convoluted, leaving the victims disbelieved and defenseless. Because of their charm, which often borders on charisma, narcissists tend to inspire a flock of loyal protectors/enablers (or “flying monkeys”) who defend them tooth and nail, regardless of the heinousness of their actions. They are convinced the narcissist is the real victim; therefore, consequently, justified in what they perceive as retaliation, so they blindly do their bidding. It is time this societal epidemic was illuminated for what it is. Victims and survivors deserve a voice, and that is why I will continue to write about my experiences and call out abusive behavior when I see it.

Special Note: This is not the post I had planned next, but then again, this was not the day I had planned either. Due to computer issues and lack of expertise or skill level to fix them myself, I had to take to my phone & write, rather than work on d6 Collab bugs, and this is what came out. I promise my next post in “My Story” will actually explain what narcissistic abuse is for those who don’t know, as I believe it is an especially crucial topic given the current cultural and political climate in this country. I hope to have it posted by the end of this week, barring any other technical difficulties. Thanks for your patience.✌