10/04/2025
Exactly. The covert narcissist kept his mask pretty flawlessly intact for 3 years and then the severe verbal and emotional abuse started and kept accelerating until he would sense he pushed too far and then he would love bomb, even for extensive periods, to ensure he had successfully kept me hooked on hope that things could get better and back to how they were in the beginning. People always want to blame you for staying as long as you did but they have no clue how much of a grooming predator most abusers are. My brain couldn’t comprehend the cycle/pattern of abuse because it was based on my mental state of him just taking me far enough to crush a little bit of my spirit and then, when he pushed to far, he would love bomb. Confusion and chaos with periods of putting you on a pedestal is the pattern you should look for when determining if you are in an abusive relationship. Even our mutual friends who he flawlessly groomed/manipulated with my smear campaign couldn’t even recognize how he played them just the same lol. If our close friends didn’t spot the red flags and still can’t see them clearly, then how was I supposed to?! I’m thankful that I have never blamed myself like so many other survivors unfortunately do. For me, a few days out of the relationship, I clearly could see it was all intentional acts to hurt me and I accepted the truth - that he is a pure evil abuse predator. When you come from pure intentions, you can’t even fathom that the chaos/confusion is intentional. Only survivors/thrivers understand how well they groom/manipulate to cover their tracks. We all get blindsided. It’s just that some people fortunately never get sucked in with one to understand and accept that many people they are friends with and related to are abusers behind closed doors AND that they would not easily spot the abuse either.