Welcome to Narcissist Apocalypse, everyone. I am Brandon Chadwick and today we'll be doing a debrief

for Canva's story. We'll be doing key takeaways, the reasons that she stayed, plus the things

we want for her going forward. But for those of you who have not listened to her story yet, here is a brief summary.

So Canva grew up knowing that whatever was going on inside of her could make other people feel worse.

So often she just kept things to herself. And Canva was sexually assaulted when she was

younger. She had an eating disorder when she was younger and developed low self-worth and there was

emotional abuse from her brother as well. And she could just never safely talk about these things

with her family. So she became a conflict avoider and tried to

handle her problems by herself as a survival mechanism. And when Canva met her abuser at the age of

22, she felt the connection was just out of this world. And he made her feel accepted and understood

and safe.

And within a week, they were saying that they loved each other.

And they were just imagining a future together.

Canva purchased the RVs they lived in, paid the rent when he had no money, and continued supporting their plans as they moved from place to place.

And after they moved into a house together, Canva became

pregnant, and that is when the abuser's behavior changed. He began dismissing her concerns

as her being hormonal, irrational, and crazy. And the person who had once made her feel understood

was now using her pregnancy to invalidate

almost everything that she was saying. And after their son was born, Canva did all the parenting,

all the household responsibilities, the abuser left for work for months at a time, and then returned

with very little money.

And when he decided he did not want to work, Canva took a night job at a casino

...