3. The awakening.
This is when the mental shift happens and you start to feel clarity. You have educated yourself pretty well at this point and you see clearly what’s going on. I will say the awakening stage is a process. It does not happen all at once.
In Shannon Thomas’s book healing from hidden abuse, she states that this is not a linear journey and that most times a victim will go back and forth between despair and awakening, and I find that accurate to my healing journey and my clients who are going through this. You are going to be dealing with enormous amounts of cognitive dissonance, meaning trying to discern if the narcissist is actually a narcissist, is this person the wonderful loving person I fell in love with, or the abusive monster that I have seen so many times.
Coming out of this is not a straight shot you guys. Healing is full of bumps, twists, and turns kind of a two steps forward one step back. I wish it were a once and done type of process but it’s just not. The reality is you have been severely psychologically abused by many of us for years and years.
So it took a long time to get us to this point. Healing is not going to happen overnight. Staying committed to the process is absolutely critical though because healing will eventually happen if you dedicate yourself to the process and have patience.
A Wonderful book: Healing from Hidden Abuse: A Journey Through the Stages of Recovery from Psychological Abuse
Continue reading on the next page
Sharing is caring!
