February 2025: 

Narcissistic Abuse and Your Body

Month Description:

Can narcissistic abuse literally affect my body? My physical health?

If you have been through this – then you already know the answer is a resounding yes.  

This month is about a topic I have been chipping away at for years – and the truth of it shows up in my work and conversations every day, but there is no direct research on this (the research we need to do to definitively prove this would be EXPENSIVE and take many decades) -but we have to draw from what we know happens to people’s bodies after trauma, domestic abuse, daily stress.    But there are other things that happen when a person is experiencing the physical health issues that are clearly a byproduct of what happens in narcissistic relationships – and that is the gaslighting, minimization, and dismissal of any health issues you are having – and then you start to doubt yourself.    All of us in this community have experienced these health issues to greater or lesser degrees – some of you may have autoimmune issues, or experienced severe illnesses where even your health care team was flummoxed about why the course of your illness was so difficult.  Others of you may have a range of other health issues ranging from headaches and body aches to a collection of symptoms where you feel like your body is just not feeling “well”, and others of you may reflect on how your health behaviors and habits like getting enough sleep have suffered or never even got to develop well as a function of being in this relationship.