Coryn

“For the child of a pathological narcissist, love is having your personality rejected and replaced with one the narcissist prefers. Love is neglect, abandonment, tyranny, and subjugation.”
― M. Wakefield, Narcissistic Family Dynamics: Collected Essays

“I was in denial of the glaring reality that my existence depended on my willingness to comply with the family policy of me earning the splinter of space they granted to me.”
― M. Wakefield, Narcissistic Family Dynamics: Collected Essays

“Many freeze types unconsciously believe that people and danger are synonymous, and that safety lies in solitude. Outside of fantasy, many give up entirely on the possibility of love. The freeze response, also known as the camouflage response, often triggers the individual into hiding, isolating and eschewing human contact as much as possible. This type can be so frozen in retreat mode that it seems as if their starter button is stuck in the ‘off’ position. It is usually the most profoundly abandoned child - ‘the lost child’ - who is forced to ‘choose’ and habituate to the freeze response… Unable to successfully employ fight, flight or fawn responses, the freeze type’s defenses develop around classical dissociation.”
― Pete Walker

“That we wanted to believe the best in others and the worst in ourselves and then finally, in order to heal, we saw with clarity that it was the other way around"

--Alice Little, No Contact Survivor”
― Alice Little, Healing the Traumatised Adult: Abused as a child and an adult? How to claim your life back now