I know this is a question often asked about people in abusive relationships; whether they are physical, mental, emotional or all of the above. Well, if you read my guest Dana S. Diaz’s book “Gasping for Air; the Stranglehold of Narcissistic Abuse” you will fully understand why.

Someone used to abuse is going to be more susceptible to falling prey to the abuse of a narcissist. If you just can’t understand why someone would fall for this type of person in the first place, consider yourself lucky! Whether we are a person who could see the red flags flying high or not, no one is safe from falling victim to being abused. These guys are good! They love bomb you sometimes, they make you feel like the most special thing in the world… for a minute. For just long enough to suck you into their web. Just long enough for you to all in love and then spend the rest of the relationship trying to get it back to what it was in the beginning. You start believing the lies they tell you about yourself; the gaslighting. And the sad truth is that the way it was in the beginning was never reality and it will never be like that again. So… then cut your losses and just leave, right? Ha! Maybe.

These guys are so good that they know how to trap you. “Oh baby, you don’t need to work. Let me take care of you. I want our children to be raised at home with their Mom, not in some daycare!” Boom! You don’t have any income. That is just one example of how they get you. Dana’s book outlines so many more ways it is just unbelievable. And now she is on a mission to shed light on it and help other women get out before spending 20+ years miserable, and terrified, like she did.

What I wonder is how, after living the way she was forced to for so long, she can be thriving and as happy as she is now. Sure, getting out from under the narcissist’s thumb is freeing I’m sure, but the loss of self-esteem has also got to be huge. How do you get that back?

Listen to this week’s episode to find out how Dana did it. And how you can too!

I am in such awe of this woman. She is happy, funny, positive and just an all-around amazing person. I can’t say enough good things about her writing, either. Wow, she really did a great job with this book. There were times reading her story was too much, and I just had to force myself to put the book down and take a break – all the while thinking about how she couldn’t take a break from it when she was living it. But most of the time I couldn’t put it down! I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next… and mostly… when, and how, she was going to be able to get free!!! Obviously (Spoiler Alert) she did get free.

Get the book. Read the book. Listen to the episode. And know there is ALWAYS hope and a way – even if it takes years. Don’t give up and know you in absolutely NO WAY deserve the abuse!! It is not your fault and you are DEFINITELY NOT Crazy!