Abuse isn’t always a bruise; often, it’s a slow, silent erosion of the soul. Living with a narcissist means being trapped in a constant guessing game where one day you’re loved and the next you’re systematically torn down. It is the exhaustion of living on high alert, tiptoeing through your own home, and shrinking yourself until you are a shadow of the person you once were. This toxic cycle rewrites your reality until you believe their lies over your own truth. You apologize for their mistakes and abandon your dreams to keep a "peace" that never actually comes. From the outside, the family photos look perfect, but inside, you are drowning in a quiet, lonely war. The hardest truth is that you don’t realize how heavy the burden was until you finally set it down. If you are living small to survive, know this: you are not the problem, and you don’t have to stay hidden forever. "It doesn’t just wound you; it rewrites you. But you can find your way back to yourself."