23 Things Only People Who Were Raised By Narcissistic Parents Will Understand

You have a fragmented sense of identity. Trauma creates fragments — creating a split among memories, emotions, thoughts, and sensations.

Thought Catalog
10 min readAug 11, 2023
Iren Fedo

By Shahida Arabi

Your life doesn’t stop being traumatic once you turn eighteen. It continues as a cycle of trauma reenactment. You may wonder why you become easily entrapped in toxic relationships with people who resemble your parents or exploitative friendships that seem to reenact your childhood adversity. This is because adult children of narcissists tend to become subconsciously drawn to dangerous people as a result of their upbringing. Their bodies and minds are accustomed to chaos and even biochemically “addicted” to it due to these early traumas. You are still working through ancient programming and beliefs.

Your independence is vital for your own safety and well-being. So is your alone time. Being hyper-independent and alone most of the time may seem like a lonesome burden to people who weren’t raised by a toxic parent. But for you, it’s absolute bliss. Being alone means you finally get to choose who gets to be in your life and who has the ability to affect your emotions on a daily basis — a choice you never got to make as a child…

--

--

Thought Catalog

We’re a community of creators based in NYC. We publish a digital magazine and limited edition books. thoughtcatalog.com // shopcatalog.com