Am I being abused? Conscientious, agreeable people sometimes don’t recognise another person’s patterns of behaviour as abusive. How to tell if you are in an abusive relationship.

People high on the narcissism spectrum and coercive controllers tend to use similar tacticsto manipulate and control targets.

In a world that constantly bombards us with images of supposed "ideal" personalities and lifestyles, it's easy to feel like we fall short. We might question whether our personalities are "normal" or whether we fit into society's narrow definition of what is acceptable.

Bullying and psychological abuse is all about the absence of things, rather than the presence of things.

People know when they are the victim of covert bullying and abuse.

The Split from a narcissistic partner can create so much chaos as to be overwhelming for some people.

Survivors often must grapple with serious survival threats, as well as deep moral injury.

When Personal Power comes up against Positional Power, and the person with the Positional Power has many narcissistic traits, the drive to diminish the Personal Power of the other becomes almost an obsession – which is subsequently why the target of bullying feels targeted – because they are!

Written over the entrance to the Ancient Temple at Delphi were words which could easily form the basis of modern trauma-recovery therapeutic interventions. Know Thyself. They are an exhortation to look first within our own character in order to understand our world.

The in-built grandiosity and entitlement of the narcopath is so huge it is likely they genuinely experience the most minor of challenges or disagreement as a gross invasion to their superior self-image – a narcissistic injury.

The narcissist will claim the fight/race/election was rigged, rather than accept defeat. They must win at all costs.

In her 1996 book, psychologist, Elaine Aron first identified a type of person who it is estimated makes up about 15-20% of the population. They are not necessarily shy or introverted, and are not necessarily neurotic. But they are normally and naturally sensitive, deep thinkers, who essentially feel things more deeply than others.

Some of us have harsh, sarcastic or critical voices that are part of our own internal dialogue. These harsh inner voices are the result of conditioning. We learned this cruel internal discourse as we were growing up, from our parents, caregivers, teachers, peers or siblings.

Triggers can be directly addressed when our nervous system is in a relaxed and safe enough environment to do so. The traditional Tibetan practice of Chod is the perfect visualisation method for us to take the sting out of things we fear.