What a Relationship with a Narcissist Does to Your Nervous System

And How to Begin Reclaiming Your Sense of Safety

You don’t realize it at first.

You might feel confused, walking on eggshells, constantly questioning if you’re too sensitive or not enough. You tell yourself it’s not that bad. You just need to try harder, be better, stay calmer.

But slowly—silently—your body starts to tell a different story.

Your chest tightens before a text arrives.
You brace before walking into the room.
You feel drained after every conversation, like your energy has been siphoned away.
You stop trusting your gut—because someone made you feel like you couldn’t.

This is what a relationship with a narcissist does to your nervous system.
And if you’re reading this… I want you to know you are not alone. I see you. I feel you. I’ve lived it too.

The Subtle Impact: Narcissistic Abuse is Nervous System Abuse

Whether it’s a partner, parent, boss, or friend—narcissistic dynamics create an unpredictable environment. One moment they’re love-bombing you, the next they’re cold, cruel, or silent. Your body is constantly trying to figure out: “Am I safe?”

This ongoing stress activates your survival response:

• You may live in fight, defending yourself and arguing to be seen.

• Or in flight, overworking or people-pleasing to avoid conflict.

• You might freeze—dissociating, numbing, or going silent to survive.

• Or fawn—losing yourself to keep the peace.

These aren’t flaws. These are intelligent, instinctive responses to chronic emotional instability and manipulation.

Over time, this dysregulation becomes your default. Your nervous system forgets what true safety feels like. And in its place, you carry anxiety, hypervigilance, self-doubt, fatigue, or even chronic illness.

Signs Your Nervous System Has Been Impacted:

• You’re easily startled or always “on edge”

• You struggle with boundaries or feel guilty for saying no

• You distrust your own emotions or needs

• You feel disconnected from your body or numb

• You experience anxiety, insomnia, or brain fog

• You crave peace—but don’t know how to feel it in your body

The Good News: You Can Heal

Your nervous system is not broken—it’s brilliant. It adapted to survive something painful. And with the right tools, support, and love, it can also learn how to feel safe again.

Through somatic healing, you gently reintroduce cues of safety into your body.
Through nervous system regulation, you learn to shift out of survival and into presence.
And through trauma-informed care, you stop blaming yourself for what you had to do to survive.

You learn to hear your body’s wisdom again.
You learn to rest, to receive, to trust.
You come home to yourself.

You Don’t Have to Carry This Alone

Healing after narcissistic abuse isn’t just about cutting ties. It’s about rebuilding the relationship you have with your own body. With your truth. With your wholeness.

That’s the work I do—and it would be an honor to walk beside you on your journey back home.

Download my free Nervous System 101 Guide to begin reconnecting with your body and gently easing out of survival mode.
You deserve to feel safe. You deserve to feel free. And you are so deeply worthy of the life that’s waiting for you on the other side.

With love,
Dajana 🤍