Surviving narcissistic abuse can leave you struggling with many mental health issues. Why? It’s one of the leading causes behind the development of several severe mental health problems we know about—things like complex post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, psychosis, ADHD, and somatic disorders.
How does it cause all of this? It takes every bit of energy and resourcefulness to come out alive from that hell of abuse—and it takes a toll on your body, your brain, and your soul. That’s why you feel so exhausted. You can’t recognize yourself anymore, and you start asking questions like: Who am I? What am I supposed to do now?
Your functionality has changed. That change has changed you as a human being.
1) Chronic Anxiety Disorders
What are they? When you’re constantly keyed up, cornered, anxious, and worrying all the time—and this anxiety doesn’t go away no matter how much you try to relax. You put on relaxing meditation on YouTube or another platform, but it doesn’t work. You take Xanax or other medications, but your nervous system still can’t fully let go. You’re constantly spinning things in your head, and that’s called rumination.
It’s like a washing machine: continuously running. You’re trying to “wash” things, but the anxiety, worry, and paranoia don’t go away. All of it is destabilizing.
Why so? Because the person who traumatized you—your narcissist—traumatized you to your core by doing everything they did: manipulation, gaslighting, and the whole pattern of abuse—physical, psychological, emotional, withholding affection, or taking so much affection from you that you’re left completely dry.
You feel exhausted. There’s no energy in you, but at the same time you’re filled with heat—so much anxiety. That survival stress doesn’t find a way out of your body. You feel frozen. You want to move forward, but you can’t.
These are characteristics of major anxiety disorders.
Why is it happening?
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