Relationships are the bread and butter of life. They make our lives meaningful and fill us with experiences and memories that we carry our whole life long. However, we all know that relationships can be stressful, exhausting, and downright toxic at times as well. Not all relationships last the span of our lifetime and friends come and go as if they are exiting and entering through a revolving door. It is a fact of life that some of the relationships we lose through this journey of life are relationships that we were meant to lose. Relationships that hindered our growth and well being in some way.
A relationship with a narcissist is one such relationship that can keep you stuck in life, not progressing no matter how hard you spin your wheels. Relationships with narcissistic individuals are downright devastating to one's mental health. People who are in relationship with a narcissist typically experience a high psychological burden. Depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation are often the common ailments of a narcissist's targets. Narcissistic individuals can affect the financial lives of their targets often times trying to make the person dependent on the narcissist. They may even put their targets into sexually awkward or abusive situations. Once a narcissistic individual has chosen their narcissistic supply, they can be quite intrusive and controlling on their target's life. They are also often charming first, hence why people enter into relationship with these individuals at all.
Since narcissists lack empathy, they do not function in relationships the same way as empathic individuals function. They do not enter into mutually beneficial relationships. Instead they target people who they can use or exploit. These types of individuals are notorious for being in one-sided relationships. Relationships in which they benefit at another person's expense. In general, narcissists tend to ignore the emotional needs of their targets, they refuse to have compassion or any deep feeling for another person's situation. They often leave their targets feeling drained and as if the narcissist doesn't care about them. The narcissist is in fact incapable of caring about another person in an empathic way. They mainly care about what the other person can do for them and how they can feel special and admired in the relationship.
These relationships are very dangerous to one's mental health and it is best not to give too much energy to these individuals. It may be hard to leave a narcissistic relationship as leaving such an individual often engenders rage and vindictiveness from the narcissist. The narcissist will likely try to hurt their target in some way if they try to leave. However there are times when the narcissistic individual will leave their target willingly. They leave when they have exhausted the target to such a point that the target doesn't have much left to exploit. If they damage your mental health to such a point that you no longer have the energy to make them feel admired and special then they may rid themselves of you. Letting go of these relationships can be a challenging time in one's life and having the support of a life coach or mental health care worker can be invaluable.
By: SolidMindSpace editorial team
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