Breaking Free from Narcissistic Abuse

Епизоде

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  DARVO Exposed: How Manipulators Make YOU the Abuser When You Confront Them 17.09.2026 17мин

  Why did the narcissist’s collapse look so real — curled on the floor, shaking, sweating, begging you not to leave — yet nothing changed after? What looks like a breakdown is often a temporary loss of status, not a loss of identity — the defensive structure drops for 30 seconds, then rapidly reconsolidates and the manipulation continues. This is a highlight from a recent live Q&A, repurposed here as our second weekly podcast segment. In this episode, Kerry unpacks the hidden mechanics be...
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  Why Narcissists Ruin Your Sleep: Don't Miss This Nasty Bedtime Control Tactic 14.09.2026 27мин

  What if the reason you feel like you're always “nagging” has nothing to do with you being difficult — and everything to do with deliberate provocation? In this episode, Dr. Kerry McAvoy and Lynn Strathdee break down the hidden mechanics behind pathological provocation — why abusers poke, prod, and sabotage your boundaries at bedtime and beyond. How they insist on misunderstanding you, wear you down, and then recast you as the “whining nag” to make themselves the victim. This isn’t about the ...
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  I Treated Narcissists for Years and Never Saw a Collapse — Here's What Really Happens 10.09.2026 27мин

  Why did the narcissist’s collapse look so real — curled on the floor, shaking, sweating, begging you not to leave — yet nothing changed after? What looks like a breakdown is often a temporary loss of status, not a loss of identity — the defensive structure drops for 30 seconds, then rapidly reconsolidates and the manipulation continues. This is a highlight from a recent live Q&A, repurposed here as our second weekly podcast segment. In this episode, Kerry unpacks the hidden mechanics be...
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  He Fooled Every Therapist in the Room — What No One Warns You (feat. Chelsey Brooke Cole) 07.09.2026 32мин

  What if the trait everyone praises you for is the exact one the narcissist is scanning for? That isn’t naivety. That isn’t missing the red flags. Agreeableness — assuming people are honest, wanting harmony, believing no one would be cruel on purpose — is a readable personality profile, and predators read it faster than you can. In this episode, Kerry sits down with therapist and author Chelsey Brooke Cole. Cole married two narcissists — one grandiose, one covert — while practicing as a clin...
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  The Family Scapegoat: Why You Were Chosen, and Why It Was Never About You 03.09.2026 17мин

  Why does one person in the family end up carrying everything — the blame, the mood, the thing nobody will say out loud? That wasn't a flaw in you. That was a role, and someone cast you in it. Scapegoating is bullying that a family agrees not to stop, and it works because it holds the group together at your expense. This is a highlight from a recent live Q&A, repurposed here as our second weekly podcast segment. In this episode, Kerry breaks down why families choose a scapegoat, wh...
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  How Narcissists Pick Their Victims in Under an Hour 31.08.2026 35мин

  What if it only takes him an hour to know exactly how to control you? That wasn't chemistry. That wasn't "instant connection." A predator ran a background check on your character to know if you had the exact traits he needs to exploit. In this episode, Dr. Kerry sits down with returning author and expert, Don Hennessy. Hennessy has spent decades working directly with abusive men. He breaks down the calculated, deliberate selection process predators use to identify and groom targets. Podca...
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  Rumination After Narcissistic Abuse: Why Your Mind Won't Stop, and How to Break the Loop 27.08.2026 24мин

  Why do you keep replaying a relationship that's already over — running the same five minutes on a loop, searching for the one detail that will finally make sense of it? That wasn't you overthinking. That was your nervous system trying to close a case file that has no ending. You survived a partner who gaslit you and switched faces so that the "true" version of them was never verifiable. This is a highlight from a recent live Q&A, repurposed here as our second weekly podcast segment. In th...
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  The Narcissist Relationship Cycle: Why They Get Bored and Repeat It 24.08.2026 26мин

  What if the reason they keep coming back to you has nothing to do with love — and everything to do with boredom? In this episode, Dr. Kerry and Lynn Strathdee break down the internal clock that drives narcissistic relationship cycles. How pathological partners idealize, withdraw, only to circle back. This isn’t about the victim—it’s about the dysfunctional nature of the abuser. Podcast Extra Exclusive Segment Want to go deeper? Become a Substack paid subscriber and learn wh...
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  The Narcissist’s Hit-And-Run Tactic: Why They Leave You Feeling Crazy 20.08.2026 12мин

  They said they'd "never talk to you again" — like it was a boundary. Like it was healthy. But the silence never actually stayed silent. Behind your back, a different story was already being told behind your back. And when you reach out, you’re blocked. This is a smear campaign with a "no contact" mask on. This episode, Dr. Kerry McAvoy reads from your stories — real accounts from people who lived through the attack-then-block cycle — to break down what's actually happening when a narcissist "...
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  Divorce Attorney Diana Romanov: Why Being Nice to a Narcissist Can Leave You Homeless 17.08.2026 29мин

  The divorce papers are signed. The marriage is over. But for survivors of narcissistic abuse, the legal system is often where the abuse escalates — not ends. In this conversation, Kerry McAvoy and Family Law Attorney Diana Romanov decode the legal tactics narcissists weaponize after you leave. How conflict avoidance becomes your abuser’s most powerful legal advantage. Learn how the earliest red flags predict exactly how dangerous the divorce will be. Exclusive Podcast Extra Segme...
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  Feed Swap: Beneath the Apology — Shame, Image & the Illusion of Empathy with Renee Swanson & Dr. Mazella 14.08.2026 31мин

  Why does their apology leave you feeling like the one who did something wrong? \ Continuing this week's feed swap, I'm sharing a conversation from Renee Swanson's Covert Narcissism Podcast — this time a guest interview with Dr. Anthony Mazzella, a psychodynamic therapist and host of The Narcissism Decoder. Together they get underneath the behavior to the "why," unpacking what they call the illusion of empathy: the moment an apology looks like remorse but is really about image control.&n...
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  The Financial Abuse Tactic Narcissists Use When They 'Have No Money 13.08.2026 15мин

  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, Kerry reads from real accounts from people who lived insid...
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  How Narcissists Use Love Bombing to Build a Financial Trap 10.08.2026 28мин

  He checked the grocery receipt. And the look on his face said everything: he expected to catch you at something. You weren't a partner. You were a suspected thief. But that moment — that first time money became a surveillance tool — didn't come out of nowhere. It didn't start with the receipts, or the interrogations, or the separate account he opened without telling you. It started the moment he made you feel like the luckiest person alive. Because that feeling — of being ch...
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  Narcissistic Parents Don't Love Their Children — They Use Them 06.08.2026 13мин

  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, Kerry reads from your stories — re...
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  When Your Narcissistic Ex Weaponizes Your Children in Their Smear Campaign 03.08.2026 33мин

  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 Kerry McAvoy to break down exactly how narcissistic exes weaponiz...
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  Feed Swap: Covert Narcissist Relationships — When You Can't Live the Lie Anymore with Renee Swanson 31.07.2026 22мин

  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 17мин

  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 30мин

  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, 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 rec...
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  Harmless Joke? No, It Was Sadism & Why Your Body Spotted the Truth First 23.07.2026 18мин

  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 29мин

  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...