I've spent years trying to create and maintain healthy boundaries with my ex-husband. It’s a daily task requiring me to stay on guard at all times. I have to carefully edit and dissect every email or text that I send him to make sure that I am not being too friendly, engaging him in any way, or inviting further interaction. I avoid all face-to-face interaction in order to prevent him from trying to intimidate or manipulate me.
This is quite draining, since it is an unnatural way of communicating with another human being. But, communication with a sociopath is not anything like communication with a normal person.
He will look for ‘hidden meanings’ that are not there, he will use words and phrases that push my emotional buttons, or he will talk in riddles that imply a message that he won’t ever say explicitly. This is his way of setting up a possible scenario where he can twist the truth, change his meaning, accuse, blame, ridicule, you name it.
This is a favorite game of his, and I sense the trap so often that I actually begin to feel paranoid, until I talk to a ‘normal’ person. It doesn't take long to reinforce what a healthy relationship sounds and feels like. But, a sociopath has the uncanny ability to manipulate us into questioning the one thing that is the very essence of our survival: instinct.
No comments:
Post a Comment