Welcome to Narcissist Apocalypse, everyone. I am Brandon Chadwick, and today we will be doing a debrief of Rebels' story.

And a quick summary of Rebell's story for those of you who have not listened to it yet,

Rebell grew up as a driven, adventurous, high-achieving person.

She trusted herself. She followed her own inner voice. She became a very high-level skier,

had Olympic dreams, and that got thwarted. She was in a serious car accident. After the accident,

she started going to law school, started

off going in a wheelchair, and she was someone who believed that she could survive anything after

that. And then she eventually meets the abuser in her life. And at first, it felt romantic. They

had briefly met once before. And when he saw her again, he told her that he'd been trying to get a hold of her for a year.

He made it sound like destiny had stepped in.

And they had these strange coincidences.

They lived in the same places.

They had mutual connections.

So he made the beginning of their story feel like fate, like it was this big

story. It wasn't just, I met this guy. It was maybe this was supposed to happen. And he also

presented himself as this wounded person. So rebel became the capable and strong one, and she felt pulled into this idea that if she

could love him enough and guide him through everything enough, that he'll become the person that he's

supposed to be. But early on, the abuser here still had contact with other women. And when

Ravel questioned these things, he made her feel crazy, jealous, and

unreasonable. And then he had some crocodile tears, the apologies, a lot of childhood

explanations, and promises that he would change. And from there, they got married. And then

these patterns start to show up again. He starts stonewalling during conflict.

...