Have you ever met someone and felt an immediate connection to them but, later, you discovered they were highly manipulative?
How many times have you shared your deep thoughts and fears with someone, only to learn they had collected this information to control you?
In most cases, this is exactly how things play out with narcissistic individuals.
As a trusting, caring, and compassionate individual, you like to think that other people are the same way.
But, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, the person across from you is analyzing you to see if you’d make a good source of supply for their selfish agendas.
In this video, I cover five ways narcissists determine if you’re going to be good supply.
While you believe you’re being agreeable, flexible, and easy to get along with, the narcissist is actually testing you to see if you are good relationship material for them.
How Narcissists Test Their Victims
Video Transcript:
1 – They suggest right away that you should change the way you look or something about your personality
Maybe you just met someone and you’re in a new relationship. You think things are going along pretty well, but what you want to be on the lookout for is when they want you to change something about your personality, the way you look, or the way you dress.
If you have just met someone and they are asking you to change your hairstyle, change your hair color, change your wardrobe, or are telling you that you need to change something about your personality; maybe you’re too nice, maybe you are too guarded…these are red flags.
This is one of the first signs that you’re dealing with a narcissistic individual because, let’s face it, when you are first dating someone, this is not the time for them to lay out all the things they think you should change about yourself.
Don’t fall into a false sense of security, believing this relationship has long term potential, and go out and buy slinky dresses and high heel sandals.
Or if you’re a guy, maybe they’re telling you to wear a muscle shirt and that’s just not what you normally do, then this is a sign (if you’re even considering it), that you’re dealing with a narcissistic individual or at least a manipulator.
2 – They say they’re going to call you at a certain day and time, and never do
Then, a couple of days later they do finally call, acting as if everything’s completely normal. Meanwhile, you’ve been holding your phone with a white-knuckle grip waiting for them to call and they’re finally calling you as if they’ve been out having the time of their life, living joyfully and they’re calling you and you’re feeling really high strung and anxious about the situation.
This is their opportunity to see exactly how their not calling has affected you. This is not a coincidence.
They might say they were out of town or forgot to call. They were busy doing ABC. This is not an accident. It’s something that they planned ahead of time to see what your reaction would be.
If it happens one time, you probably don’t have anything to worry about. If you are dealing with an individual who is sincerely sorry, maybe they really did have something come up and they weren’t able to call, they weren’t able to get in touch with you, and they’re going to be very apologetic about it.
They’re not going to act like you’ve gone off the rails because you’re so upset.
If you are dealing with someone who does this a lot, it’s your sign that you just need to cut that anchor and sail away.
3 – They assure you that they can be trusted when you’ve just met
It’s suspect if you are interacting with someone you have just met and they’re saying you can trust them and they’re not going to hurt you.
We don’t want to be someone who has our guard up 24/7 because there are a lot of good people out there, but someone who really is trustworthy is not going to have to talk about it. They’re not going to say things like, Oh, you can trust me. They are not even going to be talking about sensitive things to begin with if you have just met.
Healthy people understand that there is a natural progression to relationships, so you don’t want to come across as being too trusting in the very beginning, especially if you are healing from your previous relationship with a manipulator or narcissistic individual.
When you are getting back out there and interacting with people again, the last thing you want to do is give your trust away to just anyone. You don’t want to rush into things too quickly.
You certainly don’t want to create an instant relationship with someone that you barely know, whom you’ve gone out with once or twice. This is a red flag. You should not be doing it.
But, narcissists do say certain things to find out if you are a trusting individual. And if you trust them too soon, you’ll regret it. Maybe their ex is calling them while you guys are out to dinner or something along those lines and they tell you, Oh, this is my ex calling. A lot of narcissistic individuals keep their exes strung along.
These are the people you see out there on the forums who are saying, “Oh my God, I can’t believe it. We just got divorced two weeks ago and they’ve already gone out and found new supply!” They’re talking about you, probably.
If you are seeing a few different red flags and then suddenly their ex is calling them on their phone, that’s your sign to leave. It’s not your cue to be more understanding or to be more flexible or to do more investigative work.
Those signs put together mean you just need to cut your losses and move ahead.
4 – Someone you barely know is sharing with you about their horrible childhood and how all of their exes treated them horribly
What they’re doing is using a form of empathy to find out if you’re going to respond to their woeful tales of childhood or how they’ve been taken advantage of by other people in their life.
They might be asking a lot of questions about you and your childhood while sharing how painful their childhood was.
Maybe they were abused and if that’s the case, that’s very sad. But you want to be mindful of the fact that they might be trying to establish cognitive empathy, meaning that they are trying to figure out what your weak spots are, what pulls at your heartstrings so that they can later use that against you.
Let’s back it up for just a moment and realize that when you’re first meeting someone, it’s not the time to lay on the table all of your hurts, all of your disappointments, and all of your traumas. That is not healthy.
You want to establish a friendship, some sort of emotional foundation before you start sharing all of these things with someone. And they should be doing that, too.
They should not be sharing all of this stuff with you if you have just met them unless it’s in a group coaching or group therapy setting.
5 – Although you feel ecstatic about the attention and romance, you feel off because your boundaries are being violated
With a narcissistic individual, violating your boundaries often starts as soon as the first meeting.
One of the first things narcissists look for when searching for a new source of supply is weak or non-existent boundaries.
If you don’t have strong boundaries, then they understand they can enter into a relationship with you and basically have you do things for them while they give you very little, if nothing, in return.
This is especially important for all of you Empaths out there. If you are an honest and trusting person who’s very compassionate and hardworking, that’s just fireworks for them.
If they’re testing your boundaries and you don’t have any, that makes you a bullseye for narcissistic individuals. And this is why I talk about boundary setting so much.
If you don’t have strong boundaries in any of your relationships, but especially romantic ones, grab this free download that will help you determine what your boundaries and deal-breakers are because you’re going to need those: RepelandDeflectNarcissists
A lot of us have a very hard time establishing boundaries because we don’t like conflict and we don’t want to come across as being confrontational or, or hard to get along with.
But, that’s exactly what manipulators are looking for.
It’s okay if you have softer boundaries with someone that you love and care for like a minor child or a sick family member. But when it comes to someone you don’t know, that is when you have to establish very strong boundaries from the very beginning.
The reason this is so important is that if you don’t establish boundaries in the very beginning, you get into a relationship and then, later on, you try to implement them, it’s usually too late.
By that time, the narcissist is just going to laugh in your face, gaslight you and tear you down. And what that does over time is it causes you to develop learned helplessness.
One thing to remember, always, is that if you have any sort of childhood trauma, that is exactly what the narcissist is targeting in you. So, it’s important to remember that we’re not helpless children anymore. We’re adults, and we have the right to put up boundaries in our relationships to keep ourselves emotionally safe.
Bonus Tips
Some bonus tips to be on the lookout for:
Gaslighting. You’ve probably read all about it, but how does that really look in real life? One thing that comes to mind is that I once dated someone who I had just started dating and we met to visit with one another. He showed up with a hickey on his neck and tried to tell me that I had given it to him.
That’s probably one of the more laughable examples I can come up with.
I knew that wasn’t true because we hadn’t even been together that way. So, that’s probably a really good example of gaslighting.
Another sign is someone who’s trying to be very controlling. Maybe someone you’ve just met. This could be a potential romantic partner or a coworker or someone that you have just started a friendship with who is telling you how you should handle something.
Unless you’ve gone to them and asked for their advice, they should not be offering you advice or telling you how you should handle things. Especially if you’ve just met them and they don’t even know you like that.
How to Overcome Narcissistic Abuse and Begin Healing
Please know that the things I’ve discussed here are things I personally experienced. I have encountered many narcissistic individuals in my life, both in romantic partnerships and business relationships.
This has made me well-attuned to the narcissistic personality and mindset (and how to heal). This knowledge is one of the foundations of my program to help people break free from narcissistic abuse and get their lives back.
Leaving an abusive relationship feels scary, but please know that these feelings do go away when you take the empowering step to take your life back and join my community of caring, compassionate folks who can guide you each step of the way.
Every passing minute is a chance to turn it all around.
Once you are away from the narcissist, your life energy can begin to recharge, your vitality can start to return, your cup can start to fill again, and your soul can begin to heal. Everyone has the innate capacity to heal themselves. But, it’s likely you will need external support to heal the traumas that get in the way of your ability to tune into this gift.⠀
I cover the applications and theories in all of these areas in my narcissistic abuse recovery program.
This nurturing program includes a wonderful private community that assists and supports all people detaching and healing from narcissistic abuse, no matter who the narcissist is (such as family member, spouse, partner, friend, etc.) and regardless of the circumstances involved.
As always, I look forward to answering your comments and questions.
