One of the most disorienting experiences in narcissistic abuse is realizing you've spent hours, days or even years defending your response to harm whilst the person who actually caused the harm never faced a single question about their behavior. You raised
your voice after being belittled for the hundredth time and suddenly the entire conversation becomes about your "anger issues." You cried after being dismissed and now you're "too sensitive" or "emotionally unstable." You set a boundary after repeated violations
and you're "cold," "unforgiving," or "holding grudges." Somehow, the narrative always shifts from what they did to how you reacted and you end up in the defendant's chair, scrambling to justify a response that was completely proportional to the harm you experienced.
This tactic is not accidental; it's strategic. Narcissistic individuals are acutely aware that if the focus stays on their behavior; the gaslighting, the manipulation, the cruelty, they lose control of the narrative. So they redirect. They make your reaction
the problem, not the thing that provoked it. It's a masterclass in deflection, instead of apologizing for what they said or did, they attack the way you responded to it. Instead of taking accountability, they position themselves as the victim of your "overreaction."
And because you were raised to question yourself, to minimize your pain, to prioritize keeping the peace, you fall into the trap. You start explaining, justifying, softening your truth, apologizing for being hurt in the first place.
What makes this so damaging is that it trains you to focus on managing your reactions instead of addressing the root cause. You start monitoring your tone, your volume, your facial expressions, terrified that if you show any emotion; anger, sadness, frustration,
it will be used against you. You learn to stay calm whilst being torn apart, to respond "rationally" to irrational treatment, to absorb harm without flinching because any visible response will be weaponized. Over time, you lose touch with your own instincts.
You stop trusting that your feelings are valid indicators of mistreatment. You start believing that maybe you are the problem, that your reactions are disproportionate, that you need to work on yourself whilst the person actively harming you skates by without
consequence.
The wildest part is how effective this is at keeping you stuck. As long as you're defending your reaction, you're not holding them accountable for their action. As long as the conversation is about whether you're "too much," it's never about whether they were
out of line. You exhaust yourself trying to prove you had a right to be upset, whilst they sit back, unbothered, having successfully avoided any real examination of their behavior. It's a loop designed to protect the abuser and gaslight the survivor into
believing they're the volatile one. Meanwhile, the actual harm; the insult, the dismissal, the violation, the cruelty, gets buried under layers of deflection and is never, ever addressed.
Healing means breaking that loop. It means recognizing that you do not need to justify your emotional response to being hurt. If someone's behavior provokes anger, tears or distance in you, that is information, not evidence of a character flaw. You are allowed
to react to harm. You are allowed to be angry, to cry, to withdraw, to say "that's not acceptable." The right response is not to defend your reaction; it's to name the behavior that caused it and refuse to be drawn into a debate about whether your pain was
"reasonable." The people who genuinely care about you will hear "that hurt me" and respond with care, not accusations. The ones who make you defend your reaction instead of addressing their behavior are showing you exactly who they are. Believe them.