What Narcissists Do When You’re Too Tough to Control, Manipulate, and Dominate
In reality, it’s their own deeply buried, disowned feelings of inferiority that drive all of this craziness. Unless you’ve been on the receiving end of this kind of emotional and psychological abuse, it can be very difficult to fathom that people can be this cruel for no other reason than that their own fear, shame, and insecurities have been triggered. But I assure you, this happens every day, all day long, in narcissistic families, marriages, and other toxic relationship dynamics all over the world.
So, what’s the solution? To begin with, it’s important to understand that how you respond to these tactics plays a crucial role in the outcome. I know how difficult it can be to maintain clear boundaries, but learning to set and live by healthy limits and boundaries is essential. It’s not about being tough for the sake of it. It’s about protecting your well-being while building and preserving your self-esteem and sense of self-worth. That’s your job. No one else is going to do that for you.
When it comes to setting boundaries, you want to clearly define what you will and will not tolerate, and what you are and are not available for. Then you have to be prepared to back yourself up. That means learning to communicate your boundaries to the narcissist and then being prepared for them to test those boundaries repeatedly. It will be up to you to learn to stand your ground, which is much easier to do when you have a solid support system in place. I’ll get to that in a minute.
