‘Living with cognitive dissonance daily causes a kind of ‘brain fog. For me, this led to the classic ‘freeze’ response – psychological, emotional, and sometimes physical paralysis. My reaction to abuse was often to say and do nothing, because I often felt nothing. I was numb and in a disassociated state for much of my life’.

(Introduction, The Lost Child – a story of recovery from Narcissistic Abuse, by Charlie Blakely)