Narcissistic Relationships and Your Sympathetic Nervous System
October 2025
Month Overview:
This is one of those topics we have talked about just about every month in this program, but that never got the full focus it deserves. This is a month about unpacking what is meant by trauma, and how we respond to it, with a specific focus on what is unique about what happens in our narcissistic relationships. Trauma has happened to human beings since the beginning of history, but we have only been talking about it in a meaningful manner for about the past 50 years. We have really only recently recognized that the lack of safety that happens in emotionally manipulative, invalidating, and harmful relationships means that our bodies respond in ways that may not make sense to us. This is not meant to be an “everything you ever wanted to know about trauma month” (though you are absolutely welcome to bring your questions to all of our Q & A’s this month) – rather it is about making sense of the many responses our bodies and minds have to unsafe situations as part of the process of healing.
Module Overview
- Journal Prompt: The fight response can appear physically, emotionally, or behaviorally. Reflect on when you’ve felt unsafe in a relationship. Did this response show up, and how did it feel? (10/06/25) (3:36)
- Journal Prompt: Reflect on your flight response: When does it tend to show up, and how does it feel? (10/08/25) (3:12)
- Journal Prompt: Reflect on your freeze response: when has it shown up, and what did it feel like?(10/10/25) (2:54)
- Journal Prompt: How has the fawn response shown up for you? How has awareness of it shaped your understanding of narcissistic relationships and your healing? How might it still show up today? (10/13/25) (4:32)
- Journal Prompt: Reflect on your flop/submit response—when have you felt collapsed, shut down, or on autopilot, and what was that like? (10/15/25) (3:22)
- Journal Prompt: Which responses do you notice showing up most, and does it depend on the situation or relationship? (10/17/25) (4:22)
- Journal Prompt: Where do you feel these trauma responses and sympathetic nervous system responses in your body? (10/20/25) (2:22)
- Journal Prompt: In the workshop, we discussed the harm from abusive relationships and the added impact of not feeling protected. Can you reflect on the difference between these two experiences? (10/22/25) (4:45)
- Journal Prompt: Have you noticed shame arising from your natural responses to unsafe or uncomfortable situations?(10/24/25) (2:49)
- Journal Prompt: Have you ever been told you’re “overreacting” to a situation you feel in your body? How has that affected how you see your own reactions? (10/27/25) (3:10)
- Journal Prompt: Has learning about your nervous system helped you feel more compassion and less judgment for your responses to triggering situations? (10/29/25) (4:29)
- Journal Prompt: When do you feel most safe—physically or psychologically? What about these situations helps you feel safe, and how might this connect to your trauma responses? (10/31/25) (4:12)