Number 1: Your Laughter
Your laughter was never just a sound; it was a signal. What kind of a signal? Well, in the early stages of the relationship, it served as proof to the narcissist that they were charming, desirable, and powerful, their spells working on you. They watched how your face softened, how your guard dropped, how your shoulders relaxed when you laughed in their presence. That moment, to them, meant they had succeeded in capturing you. It wasn’t your joy they loved; it was the validation your joy gave them. Your laughter was treated like a trophy, something they believed they had earned, something that existed to glorify them.
But as the relationship progressed, your laughter started to shift. It became measured, careful, even forced or strained. You still laughed, but not with the same freedom, not with the same ease. You started to hold it back when you felt unseen, when your jokes were used against you, when you were made the joke, when they responded to your excitement with irritation or coldness.
Laughter, which once flowed so naturally from you, began to feel like a risk. It became something you had to hide or suppress because it was not always welcome anymore unless, of course, it was at the right time, in the right tone, for the right reason, meaning on their terms. And that is when they began to lose it.
See, when your laughter no longer revolved around them, when it came from an inside joke with a friend, from a private memory, let’s say from a moment of real inner peace, they felt it. They may not have said anything outright, but something inside them shifted because your laughter that did not include them was a reminder that you had an inner life, a private joy, a spirit they could not fully own. It was a crack in the illusion of control.
After you walk away, that sound becomes unbearable to them because now you are laughing again, but without their shadow looming over you. You’re laughing with more freedom, more softness, more depth because it’s no longer tied to survival. It’s no longer a mask to keep the peace; it’s no longer given to someone who never truly appreciated it.
It is yours again, and that is what stings the narcissist. They do not hate your laughter per se because it annoys them; they hate it because it exposes them. It proves that you were never really broken; you were just buried. It proves that everything they told themselves about being the reason for your joy was a lie. It proves that you have a life that no longer orbits around their chaos.
So, they check your stories in silence. They hover over your old photos. They replay the old voice notes where you once giggled in their arms. But it’s not nostalgia; it’s not regret. It is a loss of control. The sound that once meant ownership now means liberation, and that is something they were never prepared to witness. Do you see how deep this goes? Because what they hear in your laughter now is something they cannot mimic or replicate: a person who got out alive and learned how to live again.
You may also want to read this:
Words That Destroy a Narcissist
9 Secrets ALL Narcissists Keep
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