Narcissists Do Just Enough Good to Avoid Accountability
Becoming aware of their most malicious manipulation.
My mother was dead and buried for two years before I realized she was a narcissist. I knew about many of her mental health and personality struggles, but this aspect of her was one I could not see until she was removed from my life. It was a blow to the heart. It was a slash of darkness across my childhood.
Realizing who she chose to be wasn’t the only hard part of healing the damage she had done. It was figuring out why I had missed it all these years. Worse, I had to acknowledge that it was a pattern. Not only had my mother been a vicious mental and emotional abuser in my life, I had spent most of my adult life surrounding myself with other women (and men) just like her.
It was a shock to the system. How could this happen? How could I have been abused, controlled, and manipulated for so long by so many toxic and narcissistic people? Why couldn’t I see the way they treated me? Why couldn’t I see the way they treated everyone around them?
The answer wasn’t hard to find, but it was difficult to swallow. I couldn’t see what had been happening to me because my life was filled with manipulators who did just enough good to avoid accountability.
