They don’t have empathy or remorse but their are miserable and hate themselves. They don’t feel bad and won’t ever change but living inside their miserable heads is punishment. They pretend to be happy and have a more perfect life than they do, they lie and name drop friends who are people who may actually HATE them. All they have to say is “oh I love that girl we talk all the time” - probably a lie. They treat everyone so terribly that lots of people hate them. They have just ENOUGH flying monkeys to make it appear that they are very popular. They don’t actually have to be. I’m on month 6th of my healing process and finally noticing all the times that my narc showed a crack- of just how desperate he was for emotional gratification that he could never get enough of. This is a loooong healing process. The next supply is being abused, or will be. they keep thinking that if they just find the right person they’ll be happy but they never will- because the problem is within them and no external supply can fix it. Mine so carefully constructed his “perfect life” for my benefit and I’m finally starting to be able to giggle about it not being so perfect and how much of it was for my benefit. I’m totally NC and cutting out loose contacts I’m not sure of as I realize there are connections. If I have no idea what he’s doing or care I “win”.