4. You are self-medicating with drugs or alcohol
To make yourself feel better, to silence that inner critic, and to have the courage to face life, it’s very common for a victim of narcissistic abuse, who inevitably will have symptoms of complex PTSD from the continual exposure to this environment, to be at least misusing drugs or alcohol or just flat-out abusing drugs and alcohol. This is very common.
When you have to live day in and day out exposed to these people, eventually, you’re gonna want to find some way to escape, even if you have gotten away from the narcissist. But you have internalized your abuser’s voice as your inner dialogue for a real nasty berating and cruel demoralizing session about how horrible of a person you are. And how or how insignificant you are, or what a loser you are. Eventually, you’re going to reach for something to escape from the abuse.
So if you are regularly using drugs or alcohol to escape from your home life, work-life, or the horrible way that you think about yourself or talk to yourself, this is a very sign that you’re a victim of narcissistic abuse.
Take a real hard look at the people who are surrounding you, or who have been surrounding you because there’s a pretty high probability there will be a narcissist or two in close proximity that has either been a part of your life for a long period of time.
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