Number 3: Getting triggered easily & having intense flashbacks.
This is an obvious sign of trauma after narcissistic abuse. Emotional flashbacks are extreme emotional states that you experienced when you were with the narcissist, and they resurface when something triggers you in the present environment. Occasional triggers during events like weddings or funerals are normal, but if you continuously experience intense flashbacks, shame, chronic self-doubt, panic, anxiety, and paranoia even months or years after leaving the narcissist, it indicates that your body is still carrying the emotional wounds.
Your amygdala, responsible for processing emotions, has not undergone the proper recovery process and remains inflamed. This leads to heavy emotional dysregulation, and your window of tolerance, i.e., how much distress you can handle at a given moment, remains narrow. To address this, you need to work on stabilizing your nervous system. Learn how to sit with your emotions, release them properly, and prevent them from surfacing unexpectedly in situations where you are not prepared to face them. Healing your emotional wounds will help widen your window of tolerance and bring more emotional stability into your life.
Recommended: Becoming the Narcissist’s Nightmare: How to Devalue and Discard the Narcissist While Supplying Yourself- By Shahida Arabi.
Number 4: Extreme memory loss.
This is one of the most significant signs of trauma after narcissistic abuse. It may not always be extreme, but even mild memory loss can be observed. This means you might have difficulty remembering things, concentrating, focusing, or recalling day-to-day events. Such memory issues indicate that your brain might still be injured, and your hippocampus (responsible for memory processing) may still be affected. Memory consolidation, storage, and retrieval processes could be impacted as well.
To address this, you need to focus on your nervous system. It’s possible that you haven’t fully come out of the state of panic caused by the narcissistic environment. Although you’ve left the narcissist, your brain may still be affected. That’s why you might need to change some things. Engaging in activities and exercises that induce physical relaxation is essential for trauma healing. Muscular relaxation and staying in a relaxed state throughout your day can send signals to your nervous system that it is safe. This process can help you balance out your system and change the structure of your brain, shifting from surviving to thriving.
Continue reading on the next page
Sharing is caring!
