"If someone in your life has a pattern of playing the victim, it may feel confusing and frustrating. You’re not alone and there are ways you can cope." In the article,  How People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) Play the Victim for PsychCentral, Sybil Cummin, MA, LPC, ACS and other experts weigh in on the patterns individuals with NPD display when playing the victim and how we can respond.  What is the "victim mentality" and why do individuals with NPD like to exist in this space?  What are the best, proven ways to interact with someone in this state of mind?  Read the full article here.

As I sit with my female clients day after day, a common theme emerges.  Right now, they are extremely angry and that makes them extremely uncomfortable.  It is probably helpful to mention that all my female adult clients are victims and survivors of domestic violence and narcissistic abuse.  Maybe that makes more sense to you now.  That they are angry at the abuse they have endured and maybe that they are angry at themselves for allowing the abuse to happen.  You are not wrong.  Many are angry for exactly these reasons. 

​But they haven’t always been angry.  It wasn’t safe for them to be angry.  So, what has changed?

Similar to the grief process when someone you have loved has died, anger is a stage in a larger process of healing.  These women are also grieving, but they are grieving the loss of a person and a relationship that was not real.  They are grieving the promise that was made to them over and over again as a way to keep control of them.  Some are grieving the loss of the years they spent trapped, and some are grieving the loss of their identity completely.