Did you know that your brain can be affected in some big ways by narcissistic abuse in toxic relationships? It’s true.
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Your Body is to a Computer as Your Brain is to an Operating System
If you think of your body as a computer of sorts, your brain acts as your operating system. It helps you to navigate and make sense of the world around you. Does that make sense? This also means that keeping your brain healthy is as important to keeping your whole self healthy as keeping your operating system up-to-date and virus-free can be to your computer. In other words, your brain health matters!
What is ‘Brain Health, Exactly?
When we use the term “brain health” we mean how well your brain is able to perform such tasks as learning, concentrating, remembering, playing, and managing your bodily functions. But how does your brain’s health play into narcissistic abuse recovery?
Your Brain is Deeply Affected by the Ongoing Stress and Trauma of Narcissistic Abuse
During times of stress and ongoing trauma, including during toxic relationships – along with aging and other particularly stressful periods in your life, your brain will work at differing capacities. A number of factors influence your brain’s health or how well it functions and performs its necessary duties. In addition, there are habits and activities you can engage in that can improve your overall brain health.
Approximately 100 billion neurons come together to form your brain. Over time, the neurons form pathways and connections. These connections occur through synapses, which allow the neurons to communicate with each other. Memories are made as the pathways between neurons are strengthened.
Memory and Brain Health in Narcissistic Abuse Recovery
How often do you find yourself “forgetting” little details? If you’re struggling with memory issues during or after narcissistic abuse, there’s a chance you are dealing with C-PTSD (complex post-traumatic stress disorder) symptoms – as this is one of them.
Your memory is one of the components that make up brain health and influences the ways in which you navigate the world. Your memory acts as the filing system of your brain, storing and organizing information learned for later retrieval. Everything you’ve ever learned is stored away in your memory. In order to keep your brain and memory functioning in tip-top shape, you need to exercise them and take good care of them regularly.
It’s true. Though the brain isn’t technically a muscle, it has to be taken care of in a manner similar to the ways you work out your muscles and care for the rest of your body.
Do you think this might be happening to you? If so, you might be interested in taking our self-assessment for C-PTSD.
More on Narcissistic Abuse and Its Effect On Your Brain
Resources for Narcissistic Abuse Recovery
- The QueenBeeing SPANily, Official – We consider this to be the best narcissistic abuse recovery support group on the web. Offers several subgroups and features a vigilant, compassionate admin team full of trained coaches and survivors, supporting more than 12k members. SPAN is an acronym created by Angie Atkinson that stands for Support for People Affected by Narcissistic abuse in toxic relationships.
- Other Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Support Groups – We also have separate groups for each stage in your narcissistic abuse recovery, as well as some for those who have moved past recovery and are evolving into the next stage of their own life. Survivors have unique and individual needs, even when they’ve moved on – so we’re still here for you.
- One-on-One Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Coaching – If you prefer to get more personalized support in your recovery, you might like to schedule a session with one of our coaches to plan and execute your own narcissistic abuse recovery plan.
- Find a Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Therapist – If you’re looking for a therapist for narcissistic abuse recovery, either because you cannot afford coaching and want to use your health insurance or because you have additional issues you need to address that do not fall within the realm of coaching, you will want to find the right therapist for you – and as far as we’re concerned, that therapist must understand what you’ve been through. This page offers assistance to help you do exactly that.
- Where Are You in Recovery? You might not be sure exactly where you fit in and what level of recovery you’ve achieved. If that’s the case, you’ll want to check out this self-assessment to help you determine exactly where you fall in the stages of recovery from narcissistic abuse. Once you finish and submit the assessment, you will be given resources for your own situation, along with recommendations of which groups to join.
- Which Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Program is Right for You? If you aren’t sure which program you want to utilize to facilitate your recovery from narcissistic abuse, this self-assessment will help you decide.
Related articles
- 121 Things Narcissists Say When They Are Gaslighting You
- True Survivor Stories: 28 Things a Narcissist Does When Love-Bombing (Beware!)
- Toxic Relationship Recovery: Deciding Who You Want to Be After Narcissistic Abuse
- Surviving Narcissistic Abuse: 65 Things You Might Say to Your Narcissist If You Could
- Narcissistic Abuse Recovery: Get Out of the Fog with Mindfulness
- 30 Life-Changing Facts About Narcissists in Relationships – QueenBeeing
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Angela Atkinson is a certified trauma counselor and the author of more than 20 books on narcissism, narcissistic abuse recovery, and related topics. A recognized expert on narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder who has studied and written extensively on narcissistic personality disorder and narcissistic abuse in toxic relationships since 2006, she has a popular narcissistic abuse recovery YouTube channel. Atkinson was inspired to begin her work as a result of having survived toxic relationships of her own.
Atkinson offers trauma-informed narcissistic abuse recovery coaching and has certifications in trauma counseling, life coaching, level 2 therapeutic model, CBT coaching, integrative wellness coaching, and NLP. She is a certified trauma support coach and certified family trauma professional. She also has a professional PTSD counseling certification. Her mission is to help those who have experienced the emotional and mental devastation that comes with narcissistic abuse in these incredibly toxic relationships to (re)discover their true selves, stop the gaslighting and manipulation, and move forward into their genuine desires – into a life that is exactly what they choose for themselves.
Along with her solution-focused life coaching experience, Atkinson’s previous career in journalism and research helps her to offer both accurate and understandable information for survivors of abuse in a simple-to-understand way that helps to increase awareness in the narcissistic abuse recovery community. Atkinson founded QueenBeeing.com Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Support, the SPANily Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Support Groups and the Life Makeover Academy.
She offers individual and group coaching for victims and survivors of narcissistic abuse here at QueenBeeing.com and at NarcissisticAbuseRecovery.Online.
