Number 5: Confusing Endurance with Love
Number five, you confuse endurance with love. You have endured so much in life, haven’t you? Maybe from childhood, from society, from being the strong one for too long. So pain became familiar. You started believing that real love must be earned through sacrifice. So when the narcissist made you suffer, what did you do? You did not run; you dug deeper. You told yourself that this is what real love feels like: raw, gritty, intense, filled with obstacles. But that’s not how it is.
Love isn’t supposed to feel like survival. Love is supposed to heal. Your survival, your endurance helped you rise in other areas of life, but in this dynamic, it only prolonged your captivity. The narcissist knew how much pain you could absorb and mistook it for permission. And I know walking away felt like failure, but what if leaving wasn’t giving up? What if it was a sacred act of self-respect? Think about that.
Number 6: Emotional Generosity
Number six, you are emotionally generous, and it made you a target for emotional theft. You give second chances, you make room for people’s wounds, don’t you? You understand that people are human, and healing is messy. You listen when no one else does; you offer empathy even when none is offered back. But with a narcissist, your emotional generosity does not inspire gratitude; it fuels entitlement. They took and took and took until you had nothing left but guilt for wanting something in return.
There is no reciprocity. This isn’t just about boundaries; this is about recognizing that your emotional energy is divine. It is meant to flow, but not into bottomless pits. It has to be reciprocated. You have to get something back, and that doesn’t mean you are selfish because you also need to be regenerated. Your energy centers need to be replenished; that’s how you can become a better version of yourself.
You may also want to read this:
Words That Destroy a Narcissist
9 Secrets ALL Narcissists Keep
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