Save Your Sanity - Help for Toxic Relationships

No Object Constancy Creates Constant Threats Object constancy is very much missing in a relationship with a narcissistic Hijackal, and it's an essential ingredient of a healthy relationship. In this episode, I explain what it is and what happens when it's missing. Does your relationship feel like juggling jello? It will if you have a Hijackal in it!!! Learn how to see and understand what's missing...

Being with a narcissist or any Hijackal is exhausting! You really want to believe they love you and yet to scramble to find even little shards of evidence. Then, you make the shards sound like a whole thing, right? You second-guess yourself...because a Hijackal WANTS you to feel uncertain and confused. Listen in and recognize how and that this is happening, SO you can stop it!!! Self-doubt means y...

You look for signs that someone cares. You long for signs they love you, right? So any little glimmer seems hopeful. Yet, you feel alone, demeaned, dismissed, and ignored in so many ways. That's a problem! In this episode, you'll learn more about why you cannot find the emotional intimacy you crave with an empathy-deficient person, a Hijackal who is narcissistic.. And, what you need to know to mak...

They keep you guessing, don't they? Narcissists--and all Hijackals--like to keep you in uncertainty, chaos, and confusion. You HOPE you know them, and then they make you question it. Can you rely on them? Only for one thing...and, I tell you about that ONE thing in this episode along with many signs showing you that it is unwise to trust a narcissistic person even you want to believe you know and...

Partner? Parent? Sibling? Child? Someone holding you as an emotional hostage? SEE THE SIGNS! You may be making excuses for their behavior, and not seeing their destructive, manipulative ways. You need to clearly recognize these signs of emotional terrorists in action so you can clearly refuse to let them take you hostage. You can become a hostage so slowly that you actually did so willingly. You t...

Recognize These Sure Signs They Are Emotionally Unavailable ...AND, it's not your fault! You can feel VERY lonely in a supposedly close relationship. You do everything you can to close the gap, yet nothing works. This episode will help you see what's up, and why it's a THEM problem, and not a YOU problem. Valuable to know so you won't lose sleep! Recognizing the signs of emotional unavailability c...

Wonder why you do what you do? Feel like you feel? What shaped you? Listen to this episode and check for these twenty ways you could be feeling and behaving that are result of things you may not even think about in your childhood. Good step towards enhanced emotional well-being. It's NOT direct cause and effect. People and events in your early life CAN lead to the way your feel about yourself in r...

Are you focused on a Hijackal and not on yourself? That's just what the Hijackal wants you to do. Time for focus on your own internal well-being. In this episode, you'll hear 8 MUST HAVES, and, more importantly, WHY they are an essential place to start when you're feeling put down, worn down, and torn down by a narcissistic Hijackal. Regain your center. Reclaim your power...and rebuild your life....

It's a sad turn of events when a way of misleading and manipulating people is the word of the year for Merriam-Webster. It's TOO much. It's emotional abuse. It's TOO frequent. Have you been gaslighted? Do you wonder if you're experiencing it? It can begin very subtly, and you might feel a little flattered...or close. Slowly it becomes more persistent, and you might start second-guessing yourself a...

So frustrating, disappointing, and infuriating! Hijackals will NOT allow you to be equal in all the ways that count in a relationship. They reject it. It helps you to see it when you hear how and why it happens. You can feel it, for sure, but SO MUCH BETTER to know what's up, right? Ever have the lingering feeling that the person you have in mind right now is not interested in ever letting you fee...

Promises! Proclamations! Pronouncements of just what you want to hear. Does it happen as promised? No! See tactics for what they are: ways to get you stay, or get you onside, or get around you. SO important to recognize the bait & switch as it's happening. This episode helps you do just that!  Hijackals use "Bait & Switch" tactics to get you to stay, to get off their backs, to get you...

Whether they are your in-laws--parents or siblings, or your adult children's in-laws, you can feel frustrated, infuriated, diminished, dismissed, or downright denied by in-laws you need to be right and want to be in control. It can tear your relationships apart. Worse, it can tear YOU apart! In this episode, you'll learn to recognize subtle and in-your-face screaming signs that Hijackal in-laws wo...

You need to consider whether or not you're addicted to the drama of being with a Hijackal or any other relentlessly difficult person. You may not have ever thought about it that way, BUT it's SO important to check out whether or not you ARE ADDICTED to drama. This is something you can change!!! Is your life an emotional rollercoaster? Good sign there is drama involved! HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS EPISODE:...

Good for you! Recognizing codependent self-talk is a super important part of overcoming unhealthy emotional reliance on others...particularly those Hijackal others!!! Reflect on these ten things you may be in the habit of telling yourself, and change your habits to healthier ones. You are important. Your needs are important to know and to express. You are not selfish for keeping a balance between...

Leaving an emotional abuser is taxing, difficult, and brave. So many considerations! And, if you have children, so many more. When you're with a Hijackal, you can be too trauma-bonded to see your way clearly to dinner time, let alone to see your way to leaving. In this episode, I offer many considerations that can seem daunting...at first. Breaking them down makes it more apparent what might be ho...

Understanding how "all or nothing" or "black and white" thinking divides your relationship and reduces the possibilities for growing towards each other is EYE-OPENING. It's always lurking in a Hijackal relationship, and being ready to do it differently can be GAME-CHANGING. In this episode, explore the how's and why's, as well as the what-to-do's when this "splitting" occurs. Black & white thi...

You'll be hoping for a very long time, and is that OK with you? If you're giving yourself excuses to take action, hoping a Hijackal will change is often at the top of that list. Listen to the episode to see this all more clearly.. Don't abandon yourself by giving your life over to being hooked on hope!  Hooked on hope actually means "addicted to the expectation for something you desire t...

You are likely anxious, feeling unsafe, angry, and exhausted from life with a relentless difficult Hijackal. Understanding enabling and knowing how to stop--beginning with small ways--is important for your well-being and mental health. You likely never meant to become an enabler. It happens slowly. And, just as slowly, you abandon yourself in favor of meeting the needs and taking responsibility fo...

There's that person who seems incapable--and, also unwilling--to ever put themselves in your shoes, right? Or, that person who doesn't want to hear anything about you and always returns the conversation to themselves? Or, that person who could care less that you are hurting, celebrating, or anything in between? They may be empathy-deficient. I'm sharing some ways to know if that's a pattern, and w...

"OK, Babe, I promise you the world." But, what about delivery? Learn more about how Hijackals trick you into believing they are GOING TO do something, or WANT the same things you want. It's Future Faking! It's SO important to see the patterns, and sometimes, when you've been worn down and torn down by living in a toxic relationship, you simply don't see them. Future Faking is important to recogniz...

Hijackals will do whatever they think they need to do to "win" in any moment. Generalizing, globalizing and glossing over information is a strategy--a trick--they use to go for that "win." Once you clearly see it, you will be able to counteract it, but you may not be recognizing it quite yet. This episode will expose the trick and the tactics. Feel bullied in a conversation with a narcissistic per...

It can be such a rollercoaster! Whether you're thinking about leaving, or have left, you can run between grief and relief. Knowing how to think it through and work it through makes the journey back to healthy living more possible. Yes, you may be all over the place, AND it's OK. Use these insights and strategies to make it through. Leaving an abusive relationship, healing begins once you've l...

Use my "Get to NO Guilt" Strategies in this episode. You often don't get much support for going no contact with the relentlessly difficult people in your world. Folks project their sense of guilt on you. Don't let that sabotage what's best for your well-being! In this episode, It's time to do it! You matter! You need to take good care of yourself, and a Hijackal will never help you do that. That's...

So many parallels to being in a blender!. Those conversations that go round and round and get you right back to focusing on the Hijackal. Crazy-Making indeed. Let's recognize those circular, get-us-nowhere-good interactions and know how to exit them somewhat safely. Involved in repeated arguments that never resolve anything? Feel like you're talking to the wall? Is it always your fault? See the pa...

Having a parent who could not love is NO reflection on your lovability! As a child, you couldn't know this. So, it became part of the fabric of who you think you are. It's NOT YOUR FAULT! Listen in to recognize what happened to you, and how it may be affecting your self-esteem and relationships. It could begin to change everything for you! Narcissistic, passive-aggressive parents are self-absorbed...