Number 5: The Sound of You Not Responding
Number five: the sound of you not responding. There is nothing more destabilizing to a narcissist than silence that isn’t laced with confusion, fear, or hope. When your silence no longer holds the tension of waiting or hurting, when it becomes quiet because you simply no longer care, it disrupts their entire system of control. They’re used to provoking reactions, aren’t they? Whether through charm or cruelty, your emotions, even your anger, were once a form of proof that they still had a grip on you. So when you stop reacting altogether, not with resistance, but with indifference, it rattles them in a way few things can.
They test the waters: a message out of nowhere, a vague social media post meant for your eyes, a shared photo that is just suggestive enough to stir a memory. Sometimes they even use mutual contacts to pass along subtle reminders. All of it is bait. They do not need you to love them or even like them; they just need proof that you still feel something. Because if you do, then in their minds, they’re still relevant. But when nothing comes back, no response, no glance, no energy, the silence becomes unbearable. It confronts them with the one truth they cannot rewrite, which is: they no longer have access to you.
Your absence, steady and intentional, becomes louder than any message they could send. And in that silence, they’re left talking to themselves, trying to salvage a narrative that no longer includes you.
Read More: 9 Signs You Are Dealing With a Covert Narcissist
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