4. Did not have a voice.
If you didn’t feel comfortable telling your parents how you felt or what you wanted or needed as a child, it could be an indication that they have NPD. Children of narcissists learn early on that their feelings, wants, and needs are insignificant to their parents, and they learn to hide their feelings, wants, and needs.
Children raised by narcissists are sometimes unable to identify how they feel or what they want or need because they have been accustomed to suppressing their inner feelings, wants, and needs. This can last throughout adulthood, leaving people unclear about who they are, their likes and dislikes, and their ability to make their own judgments. Did you have a voice in your family when you were a child?
3. Worried about displeasing others.
A child’s need to please their parents is understandable, but if you grew up with a parent who suffers from NPD, you may have lived in terror of offending them. This apprehension derived from seeing and feeling what had happened to individuals who had irritated them.
Many children of NPD parents fell to great lengths to please their parents, but this is only to a point. Children of narcissists may live in a state of constant free and terror because what it takes to please their narcissistic parent one day may alter from what it takes the next. You may have been subjected to a variety of penalties depending on your parent’s mood, leaving you in constant suspense. Are you the type who likes to please other people so much and so often?
Recommended: Becoming the Narcissist’s Nightmare: How to Devalue and Discard the Narcissist While Supplying Yourself
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