Series 2, Ep 5 The Stages of Acceptance
Why Recovery From Narcissistic Abuse and Love-Fraud Takes So Long
If we try to answer this question through the lens of Buddhist psychology, we could distil the answer down to one word: resistance.
These break-ups are very different from those with neuro-typical or ‘normal’ individuals. Of course, every break up implies change, and aversion to change is hard-wired into the reptilian parts of the human brain. Change sets off the amygdala, and our bodies deliver us into the fight/flight/freeze reaction…..
Recovering from narcissistic abuse almost always involves realisation after realisation that we have been lied to, stolen from, used – not only financially, but emotionally, socially, professionally and psychologically. In the aftermath, it slowly dawns that our finer human qualities (kindness, generosity, loyalty, trust) have been distorted and used against us in order to destroy and discredit us. We have been involved with a human parasite who slowly starves and kills its host.
