All the Signs are There

20 Diversion Tactics Highly Manipulative Narcissists Sociopaths and Psychopaths Use To Silence You

I’m going to cut and past the article here. From all 30 years of my life of being around family members and ex-boyfriends and an ex-husband and his own family that were just like these traits expressed, I can’t stress this educational piece enough.

If you are in a relationship that your gut instincts tell you is bad, listen to your inner truth. You can get help and get out of that bad relationship. In the end, you can find real love. It’s not the end of the world when getting out of a relationship like this.

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20 Diversion Tactics

Highly Manipulative Narcissists,

Sociopaths and Psychopaths

Use To Silence You

Article By: Shahida Arabi

Toxic people such as malignant narcissists, psychopaths and those with antisocial traits engage in maladaptive behaviors in relationships that ultimately exploit, demean and hurt their intimate partners, family members and friends. They use a plethora of diversionary tactics that distort the reality of their victims and deflect responsibility. Although those who are not narcissistic can employ these tactics as well, abusive narcissists use these to an excessive extent in an effort to escape accountability for their actions.

Here are the 20 diversionary tactics toxic people use to silence and degrade you.

1. Gaslighting.

Gaslighting is a manipulative tactic that can be described in different variations of three words: “That didn’t happen,” “You imagined it,” and “Are you crazy?” Gaslighting is perhaps one of the most insidious manipulative tactics out there because it works to distort and erode your sense of reality; it eats away at your ability to trust yourself and inevitably disables you from feeling justified in calling out abuse and mistreatment.

When a narcissist, sociopath or psychopath gaslights you, you may be prone to gaslighting yourself as a way to reconcile the cognitive dissonance that might arise. Two conflicting beliefs battle it out: is this person right or can I trust what I experienced? A manipulative person will convince you that the former is an inevitable truth while the latter is a sign of dysfunction on your end.

In order to resist gaslighting, it’s important to ground yourself in your own reality – sometimes writing things down as they happened, telling a friend or reiterating your experience to a support network can help to counteract the gaslighting effect. The power of having a validating community is that it can redirect you from the distorted reality of a malignant person and back to your own inner guidance.

Article by: Shahida Arabi

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I’ve been asked by Shahida to only post the first main paragraph of the article.

You can find the rest of this indepth educational article in the link at the top.

Thank you.

Author: mythian101

Graduate of the Art Instruction School from 2000-2002. Concept artist and writer. View all posts by mythian101