Breaking Free from Narcissistic Abuse

Episódios

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  Narcissistic Parents Don't Love Their Children — They Use Them 06.08.2026 13min

  They said they were managing the finances — because you weren't good with money. That every purchase had to go through them. But somehow, there was always money for what they wanted. They made you feel like a child asking for an allowance — in your own home. And the moment you tried to leave, you realized you had nothing. Because they had made sure of it. That wasn't financial stress. That was financial control. This Thursday episode, Dr. Kerry McAvoy reads from your stories...
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  When Your Narcissistic Ex Weaponizes Your Children in Their Smear Campaign 03.08.2026 33min

  Your child comes home from a visit with the other parent guarded. Repeating things they couldn't have come up with on their own. Now they’re looking at you differently. That's not just "divorce being hard." That's a smear campaign — and your narcissistic ex has recruited your own children to run it. This week, Dr. Josh Davis — neuroscientist, psychologist, and author of The Difference That Makes a Difference — joins Dr. Kerry McAvoy to break down exactly how narcissistic exes weap...
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  Feed Swap: Covert Narcissist Relationships — When You Can't Live the Lie Anymore with Renee Swanson 31.07.2026 22min

  If you can name the patterns and see the behaviors, have you wondered why do you still feel so stuck? This week I'm sharing an episode from Renee Swanson of the Covert Narcissism Podcast — a feed swap I wanted to bring straight to this community. Renee unpacks what she calls "hitting the wall": the moment you can no longer live the lie in a covert narcissistic relationship, when you can't keep pretending that you're fine, that your family is fine, when it simply isn't. Renee Swanson, the host...
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  When Narcissists Weaponize Food: What Survivors Need to Hear 30.07.2026 17min

  Food shouldn't feel like a threat — but for narcissistic abuse survivors, it often does. In this viewer stories episode, survivors share exactly how the narcissist in their life weaponized food — turning meals into rituals of control, criticism, and shame. Kerry shares her own experience too. If mealtime ever filled you with dread, this episode will name what you lived through and show you why it happened. In this episode: • The specific tactics narcissists use to weaponize food • Why this co...
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  The Real Reason Narcissists Make Food About Control 27.07.2026 30min

  Food is the most primal human need — and narcissists know it. The demands that ruin a vacation. The meal that is never made right. The praise given once, then withheld forever. These are calculated moves in a much larger control strategy. In this conversation, Dr. Kerry McAvoy and co-host Lynn S. decode the psychology behind narcissistic food control: why it is never actually about the food, how narcissists exploit your deepest vulnerabilities through something as basic as sustenance, and why...
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  Harmless Joke? No, It Was Sadism & Why Your Body Spotted the Truth First 23.07.2026 18min

  That flash of something is wrong you couldn't quite explain? Your body caught it before your mind could argue you down. In this Viewers' Stories episode, Dr. Kerry McAvoy reacts to a so-called "prank" a husband pulled on his wife — secretly serving her breast milk in their guests' coffee, then bringing her breakfast in bed: toast smeared with their newborn's poop in place of peanut butter. The wife wondered if she was overreacting. Too sensitive. Unable to take a joke. This is everyday sadism...
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  How Dangerous Predators Hide Sadism in Plain Sight - Joe Navarro, Former FBI Agent 20.07.2026 29min

  The most dangerous narcissists don’t go ballistic: they peck you to death. After spending decades studying dangerous personalities, former FBI agent Joe Navarro has learned that the cruelest narcissistic abuse almost never looks the way we expect. It hides behind the withheld compliment, the public put-down disguised as a joke, the silent treatment and the affection that never comes. In this conversation, Joe and Dr. Kerry McAvoy name the covert sadism living inside everyday relationshi...
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  Your Birthday Was Rigged to Fail: How Narcissists Sabotage Special Days 16.07.2026 10min

  It's your special day. Your birthday. Maybe the narcissist participated in the build-out or maybe they pretended not to notice. But you knew. And you got your hopes up. Perhaps this birthday will go differently. What you didn't expect was to spend the rest of your birthday managing their feelings. In this Viewers' Stories episode, Dr. Kerry shares submitted accounts of birthdays that ended in tears, anniversaries engineered to fail, and being asked to comfort the person who hurt you. Thi...
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  Why Narcissists Destroy Your Best Days — It's Not Forgetfulness, It's Sadism 13.07.2026 28min

  The ruined birthday. The wrecked anniversary. The gift left in a drawer. It wasn't thoughtlessness. Dr. Kerry sits down with psychodynamic psychotherapist Lynn Strathdee to break down one of the most painful — and least-named — patterns in narcissistic relationships: the deliberate destruction of special occasions. Lynn identifies the core drive as pleasure at being the cause — a compulsion rooted in early development that, in character-disordered adults, becomes a form of covert manipulation...
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  Narcissists Perfect at Hiding Cheating Because They Perfect at Lying to You 09.07.2026 12min

  In this Viewers' Stories episode, Dr. Kerry unpacks the psychological damage done by narcissistic abuse, especially when you’re living with a partner who’s keeping a secret life. Learn how cheaters use gaslighting, lies, and calculated reality distortion to conceal their betrayals. They want to make you question your own mind so completely that you stop listening to your instincts, destroying your self-trust. If you've ever felt like you were going crazy, re-reading old texts to prove to your...
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  A Sex Addict's Deception Playbook: How Your Partner Hides a Double Life 06.07.2026 28min

  Most people imagine they'd recognize a sex addict. But here’s the reality most survivors never realize: you were never meant to see it. Sexual addictive behavior doesn’t look like deception or betrayal; it looks like distance, irritability, or a relationship going cold. You don’t realize you’re with someone who’s living a double life. In this interview, Dr. Kerry sits down with therapist Cheryl Camarillo, who specializes in sexual addiction and toxic relationships. Together they break down th...
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  When the Car Becomes a Weapon: Real Stories of Narcissistic Road Rage 02.07.2026 10min

  Abuse is something we imagine happens behind closed doors. For a lot of survivors, some of the most frightening moments happened not just in the home but in the passenger seat of a moving car. In this Viewers' Stories episode, Dr. Kerry pulls directly from your comments and unpacks what each one reveals about how narcissists weaponize the car. It was never about losing the narcissist losing their temper. It was about control. And if you've ever braced yourself just getting into the car with s...
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  Road Rage & Other Terrifying Ways Narcissists Use Cars to Intimidate You 29.06.2026 29min

  If you've ridden in a car with a narcissist, then you've likely experienced them using their driving to intimidate, threaten, or scare you. People with narcissistic traits often use vehicles like a weapon, turning you into more of a hostage instead of a passenger. This week, Dr. Kerry and co-host Lynn break down why road rage and narcissism frequently co-occur and how the car gets used for far more than just driving, i If you've survived narcissistic abuse, want to watch the part we couldn't ...
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  Your Body Knew Before Your Mind Did — Viewer Stories 25.06.2026 10min

  Narcissistic abuse doesn't just affect your mind — it gets stored in the mind-body connection. Do you have the kind of chronic pain no doctor can explain? Does it get worse the harder you try to fix it? Are you bracing, clenching, and shutting down without knowing what's wrong? In this episode, Dr. Kerry unpacks how narcissistic abuse gets stored in the body, not just the mind. Want to learn more about healing from narcissistic abuse, check out Monday’s episode with Liz Tenuto, The Workout Wi...
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  Is Trauma Destroying Your Body? What Narcissistic Abuse Does to Your Health 22.06.2026 32min

  What if the chronic pain, the exhaustion, and the sleepless nights aren’t because of stress, or you’re getting older, but because your body keeping the score of narcissistic abuse? In this episode, Dr. Kerry sits down with somatic healing expert Liz Tenuto, as known The Workout Witch, to explored one of the most overlooked truths: abuse doesn't just impact your mind; it affects your body. Learn why survivors get trapped in a constant state of fight-or-flight and the surprising rea...
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  4 Ways Narcissists Use Your Name to Control and Dehumanize You 18.06.2026 9min

  Why has the person who claimed to love you gone years without once saying your name — not even once? When a narcissist won't say your name, it isn't a quirk. It's name erasure: a slow, deliberate way of treating you as less than a full person. In this Viewers' Stories episode, Dr. Kerry reads real survivor stories and unpacks four ways the same tactic shows up. Each one is a covert control tactic, and together they're a form of withholding affection most survivors don't recognize as emotional...
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  Why Narcissists Use Pet Names Instead of Calling You by Your Real Name 15.06.2026 25min

  What if the sweet pet name your partner calls you isn't affection at all — but rather designed to keep you off balance? In this episode, Dr. Kerry and co-host Lynn Strathdee unpack one of the strangest and most overlooked patterns in narcissistic relationships: the use of pet names. Learn why some narcissists even speak about themselves in the third person, and the chilling moment when a "compliment" reveals exactly what they really think of you. Podcast Extra Exclusive Segment ...
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  You've Been Brainwashed! How Manipulators Train You to Never Leave 11.06.2026 9min

  Were you brainwashed to stay — and didn't even know it? A cult doesn't need a compound, robes, or a manifesto. All it needs is two people: one who sets the rules and one who lives by them. Dr. Kerry reads your most powerful wake-up moments — from the woman who recognized every cult trait laid down in the first three months of a nine-year relationship, to the viewer who grew up in a home where productivity meant safety, to the one who finally had a word for what she'd survived: br...
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  Born into a Cult. Then Married a Narcissist. Is Coercive Control Stealing Your Life? 08.06.2026 28min

  Were you born into a cult — or did you unknowingly marry one? If you've ever felt trapped, controlled, and unable to trust your own reality — whether in a religion, a family system, or a relationship — you may have been living inside a cult of two. Narcissistic abuse operates through the same coercive control and psychological manipulation that keep cult members from ever questioning their reality. Brooke Deanne, trauma healing mentor and author of Shattered, Broken and Beau...
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  You Saw the Red Flags and Stayed Anyway. Here’s the Real Reason Why 04.06.2026 8min

  Why can you spot every red flag, name every tactic, and still find yourself in another toxic relationship? A commenter recently wrote that she had been raised by three narcissists, married to one, dated another for five years, recently lost a friendship to one, and a former partner just resurfaced. She wrapped up by saying “the law of averages can't explain it. So what can?” In this episode, Dr. Kerry unpacks why insight alone never sets survivors free. Submit Your Question ...