narcissistic parents

Narcissistic parents—whether one or both—raise children inside a family system organized around the parents' needs, image, and emotional volatility. Children may be expected to admire, perform, caretake, or absorb blame. Affection is typically conditional, and siblings are often pitted against each other in roles like golden child, scapegoat, or lost child.

Growing up with narcissistic parents can leave adult children with complex PTSD, chronic self-doubt, difficulty with trust and intimacy, and a tangled mix of love, fear, guilt, and anger toward the family. Healing means recognizing the dynamics for what they were, grieving the parents you never actually had, and deciding—often painfully—what kind of contact, if any, is sustainable now.