These are my personal opinions always seek a professional when you're making choices about your mental health and well-being.

Thanks for joining me today. I'm going to get right into a message that I received. This person wrote, I'm about a year out from separating after a 35-plus year marriage.

We have adult children.

For a long time, my life felt very off.

I learned a lot from your podcast.

I couldn't explain the chaos in my head to myself, much less to anyone else.

My ex definitely has narcissistic traits.

I finally began opening up to my best friend about what was happening.

She's been my biggest support.

But she's still friends with my ex and his social circle.

Now my oldest child is getting married and my ex wants to sit with me at the wedding.

His family will be there too.

I didn't have enough boundaries during my marriage and I'm trying to prioritize my happiness

now, but I feel pressure not to be selfish on my child's special day.

I could use your take on this situation.

This relationship has changed me forever.

I'm not the same person I was. Thank you for sharing that, and I'm sorry

you had to go through that relationship and discover that the person you're with isn't the person

they started off being, because most narcissistic and emotionally abusive relationships

start off really good, like really good.

And that's often because the abusive person is very good at charming and also giving you

everything that you want in a partner.

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