Working the Steps?

Hello and welcome to The Path Forward. My name is Goldie and I am the forum's lead moderator. I am available to assist you with the 6 Steps of recovery from a relationship with a Narcissist. This process is often painful and many are left with unanswered questions and a sense of "What just hit me?" "How can I be feeling this badly when I was "so loved" in the beginning?" and "How can I get my life back on track and recover from this confusing, painful ordeal?"

You must remember you have done nothing wrong, but believe in the good nature of another person. Unfortunately, this person has shown their true colors and you are now left with many questions. This section of the forum is devoted to answering your questions because we know you have many.

Here we will talk about what it means to be "Working the Steps" and the different recovery tools we find helpful in healing from a relationship with a Narcissist. Allowing yourself to process and feel your emotions through creative outlets as well as writing your "Goodbye Letter" are important aspects of the 6 Step Recovery process we believe with help you on the path forward. Please post your questions here and I will respond. Many of the questions which you have will also be helpful to other members. We are glad you found our community of support and can assure you that being here is the first step on the Path Forward.

Members, submit your question to Goldie!

Do they have a sense your getting along good without them....then bam contact from them!! Really???

Do they know your getting along good without them...do they have a sixth sense about this and then the contact you. I havent answered back just deleted but really...they have the ow they have the kid...leave me alone!!! Why do they do this??

Can he hold things against me?

He has been hoovering over me and I have been strict NC and now I am worried he can hold things against me... Back when I dated him and we took photos and videos and I didn't even want to but I was under the influence and he kept pressuring me and saying Lindsay if you loved me you would do it and of course I did it I know stupid and I regret it everyday. My question is now that I am ignoring him can he start holding things against me like saying Lindsay if you do not speak to me I will leak those photos and videos I took of you or is that just a narc threat?

Maybe I really AM crazy?!!!

Hello
I am brand new and I'm on overload after finding this site...so much to take in!! I'm excited as hell though to learn that I'm not alone.
When I am with my NARC, often times I behave in ways that make me feel like I'm crazy...like I don't know who I am or what I'm saying!! I get so enraged sometimes that I absolutley freak out and "lose it!" I say horrible things and then feel tremendous remorse and guilt for having behaved so badly. Then, I bend over backwards to make up for my "disgusting" behaviour.
Is it normal to feel like you're the "CRAZY" one???!!!!

What other PD's should we avoid?

Answer: 

New
PD's are ingrained in the personality therefore.......

Nearly impossible to change or cure. The ONLY way to bring about change in a PD is a complete and thorough overhaul of one's self. This is a HUGE undertaking and would take years EVEN with a willing participate because the self will naturally keep gravitating back to that which is familiar; that which is a comfortable reaction and response. Much of what a PD does is a knee jerk reaction and they run from any attempt by another to get too close to penetrating their walls of self deception and intense fear. The closer you come, the more they try to keep you at bay, to avoid you penetrating their "secret" private inner world on any level. This is why you feel so badly in a relationship with a PD. They are "abusing" you to keep you OUT. They operate from a place of intense fear and rage from any form of intimacy.

You would have to completely take down and dissect the inner workings of the personality and then rebuild it with a new one. This would take a HUGE commitment with focus and little distraction from the outside world. A desire and willingness to LET GO of all addictions, false beliefs, manipulations, and self deception. An ablility to be stripped completly of all which keep one from the pain, fear, guilt, and humiliation of the disordered self which was created as sheild and protector to keep out all that which creates discomfort. THEN one would have to TRUST and have faith in God or another (therapist) to support them through this grueling process while embarking into the unknown as the new REAL self is allowed to emerge, resurface,and eventually intergrate into that which is real from that which was false.

This would and could take years.

So therefore ALL PD's are what they are. What you SEE is what you get. If what they are is acceptable to you then fine, if it is not then, NO there are NO PD's which would be capable of giving you what you want. It's all the same thing, regardless to what the PD may be.

There has been some success with borderline's and histrionics who were willing to do the WORK AND ALLOW another to help them to reconstruct their personality with trust, faith, and a willingness to let out all of those years of repressed truth and pain.

Think Cybil, remember that movie and although she suffered from dissociative disorder, she also demonstrated-with all the charactoristics of a borderline among other issues.

She worked with a therapist for YEARS to begin to intergrate her personalities and work through her intense fears and PTSD, ect... That is an exagerated case YET, the process would be the same with any PD and the difficulty of sucessful treatement would also be the same. The keys would have to be willingness, trust, a committment to the treatment and to give up most all outside stimuli and baidaids (addictions, fillers) at the same time. Girl interrupted was alledgedly about a girl with BPD, she is not certain today that was an accurate diagnosis, regardless she was in the hospital and for the most part away from her "comfort zones" for 18 months before there was significant improvement. You get the picture.

Most people are not able or willing to do this, so they stay the same.

God bless,
Goldie

how to stop the feelings.....and gain back self respect

so i am feeling like ive went "mental" all over again.
Following a break up or "dumping" by my ex for the numerous time i decided to have some counselling to try and see my part in things and look at my own behaviours with regards to making changes. This appeared to bring up some questions i found difficult to identify with and brought up various emotions that i struggled with. I had questioned by part and my personality as in what is it about me that makes things so difficult to maintain a relationship? why cant i have a normal relationship? why am i needy and cant let go of this person despite what has happened? i have been thinking maybe i have borderline traits or codependency traits and questioning whether all of this may have actually been my fault and not his.

WHY does he do that?

We went on a road trip with my mother to take her to start a trip to alaska with some family. It took about two hours to get her there. All the way, anything I commented on was ignored by NH. Anything my mother commented on was the start of a great conversation between NH and mother. I was ignored, and treated like anything I had to say was a waste of breath. Do other people notice this treatment when they're around it? Makes me feel CRAZY!! AND LESS THAN HUMAN!!!