Welcome to Narcissist Apocalypse, everyone. I am Brandon Chadwick and today is a debrief episode of a re-release that we put out.

And it is of Francesca's story, which was originally recorded about six years ago.

And Francesca lived through not just a difficult relationship or a jealous partner.

She really lived through a system of coercive control that grew over time until it really touched every single part of her life, her body, her movements, her privacy,

her family relationships, her sense of self, and eventually her safety.

And before we get into the context of this episode and the context of Francesca's story,

if you want to be a guest on our Survivor Story

episodes, go to Narcissistapocalypse.com, click on the guest form button at the top of the page,

fill out the form, and we'll go from there. Or you can email us at Narcissist Apocalypse

at p.m.m. And we also have a very informative newsletter if you want to sign up to it.

You get a free workbook with every new newsletter. And we also have our support groups at Narcissistapocalypse.com.

And we have Zoom meetings every Wednesday night, Thursday, afternoons, and Saturday nights.

So all of that can be found at Narcissistapocalypse.com. And now we are going to give you

context for this story. So Francesca entered this relationship during a very vulnerable point

of her life. She had separated from her husband and she was carrying a lot of stuff in the

aftermath of that, a lot of betrayal trauma.

And then she meets someone who is attentive, interested, romantic, and just really deeply invested into her right away.

He asks questions. He listens. He flatters. He makes her feel seen.

He presents himself as someone who has also been

wronged, you know, and he tries to get empathy in that way. He paints his ex as being unstable,

himself as being someone who is misunderstood, and he creates this real immediate intimacy

and emotional closeness.

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