Starting a relationship with a girl with narcissistic, destructive, historically abusive parents. Advice on how to best support her?

I can only give general advice from my own situation here, so YMMV.

  1. She will likely have triggers - things that make her lose her shit and get uncontrollably angry, afraid, upset or suspicious. Hopefully she is able to talk about these things with you after they happen. Understand that she isn't necessarily reacting to you as a person, but to a particular behaviour you've enacted that she has been conditioned to associate with danger.

  2. She may also have 'nasty little habits' - what some here call 'fleas'. These are behaviours she may have picked up from her parents. These could include difficulty seeing things from others' points of view, manipulative behaviour, extreme sensitivity to criticism, black-and-white thinking, lack of empathy in certain situations, etc. These behaviours are easiest to think of as an inherited gene (they're not actually passed on through genes, it's just a metaphor). Her parents have passed them on to her, but with the right support and the right environment, those genes don't have to be an active part of her life.

  3. I don't know what your family is like, OP, but I know my partner is absolutely unable to comprehend what it's like to come from an abusive and narcissistic family. For my part, I'm absolutely unable to comprehend what it's like to come from a loving and supportive family. Accept there will be issues you approach in a fundamentally different way and there will be situations you are each fundamentally unable to comprehend.

  4. Look after yourself, too. Don't accept abusive behaviour because of what her parents did to her - it's absolutely one of the hardest things she'll ever have to work past, but that doesn't mean she can simply treat you however she wants. This doesn't mean dump her, or that it won't work out. It means don't give her an all-access pass to behave however she wants and not deal with consequences. Actively create a positive dynamic. Identify if she has any behaviours that need to be worked on. Set out a plan to work on those behaviours, with baby steps and realistic goals.

I also second what /u/princessbaea said.

Best of luck.

/r/raisedbynarcissists Thread