by Ann Bradley, www.narcissisticabuse.com
How To Tell If the Prince is A Fraud
It was all so perfect. He was Prince Charming, and you were the luckiest girl on earth. Until you weren’t.
There were clues.
Sometimes your intuition is telling you something just isn’t right but you aren’t quite sure what it might be. Do you find yourself in a relationship that gives you some concern? Are you afraid this person has some “issues” that might cause a lot of trouble? Does your gut tell you something isn’t right? Do some fact checking and answer these questions:
1. Does he rage and then apologize and promise it will never happen again? How many times do you need to see this before you recognize this as a tactic of an abuser? Once is enough. Two times is too much. Go.
2. Is he ‘too good to be true’? Is he your soul mate? knight in shining armor? And you know this on the second or third date? Better step back and give this one some time. No one is perfect and often abusers are charming and manipulative. It’s the best way to suck you in and oh, boy, do they know it. They can play you like a violin.
3. Does he ask you for money? Does he never take you someplace nice for dinner? Being thrifty is fine, being pathological about money is not. Watch out for clues such as a someone with a good job that never spends money.
4. Does he spend money unwisely? The other pathology surrounding money is that of the show – off. The man with huge roll of bills who is always buying drinks for the bar, but doesn’t know how to save for the house.
5. Is he insensitive to your needs, often making fun of you? Leave. You deserve to be treated with respect. Always. In every situation.
6. Does he have a need to control situations? To control you? While this may feel comforting, it is infantalizing and you are a grown person now who needs to make her own decisions.
7. Does he have a good persona in front of others? Do they think he is “just great”? while you know better?
You have a right to be treated with respect. Call him a narcissist, jerk or sociopath, but get away. Don’t think you can change him. You can’t.
You can change yourself. More self confidence will lead to less neediness. It’s better to be alone than with an abuser.
Charm is a facade, manipulation will wear you down, and one day you will find dreams have turned into a nightmare if you stay with a toxic guy.
“Love dies of blindness, errors and betrayals.” Anais Nin
