My Childhood & Narcissistic Abuse Caused My Lyme Disease

Trauma & Narcissism Redefined

Caroline Strawson

Narcissisticabuse, Health & Fitness, Narcissist, Self-improvement, Education, Recovery, Mental Health, Trauma

4.8 • 701 Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is not the kind of story that wraps up neatly with a bow. Rebecca Fraser’s story is raw, messy, and unfinished because healing after deep betrayal, family fracture, and years of abusive relationships with narcissists is never clean or simple. It’s the kind of survival story that digs into the parts most people don’t want to talk about, the shame, the loneliness, the repeated heartbreak, and the unbearable weight of carrying trauma in your body for years.In this episode, Rebecca shares her lived experience of growing up in a home torn apart by infidelity and addiction, being cast as the “problem child,” shuffled into foster care as a teenager, and entering a series of romantic relationships that only deepened her wounds. Alongside this emotional pain, she has been fighting a long battle with Lyme disease, a battle she believes was intensified by the unrelenting stress and trauma she endured.We explore the nervous system scars left by betrayal trauma, the painful roles children are assigned within dysfunctional families, and the long-term impact of being repeatedly gaslit, invalidated, and silenced not just by partners, but by family and community. Rebecca speaks openly about the heartbreak of losing friendships, the feeling of being “too much” for others, and the internal struggle of not trusting herself to choose safe people anymore. Don’t ever be alone in your journey and make sure you come and join my private Facebook community, No Visible Bruises where you can connect with other survivors of narcissistic abuse, domestic abuse and coercive control:https://www.facebook.com/groups/novisiblebruises.

Disclaimer:

The views and opinions shared in this podcast are those of the individuals involved and are intended for informational and educational purposes only. They do not substitute professional or medical advice. If you’ve been affected by anything discussed in today’s episode, please consider reaching out to a qualified healthcare provider or mental health professional for support. You’re not alone, and help is always available.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to No Visible Bruises, the podcast that shares real-life survivor stories of narcissistic abuse, domestic abuse and coercive control from a physiology first and nervous system perspective, because you can't think your way out of this. You need to feel to heal. I'm Caroline Strawson, a survivor myself and now a trauma expert and educator.
0:25.0	I am here to create change and understanding of the unseen abuse that we are not taught about
0:30.9	in schools and to heal from the inside out at a nervous system level.
0:35.9	Let's break the silence and change the narrative because we heal
0:40.5	together. In today's episode, I'm talking to Rebecca Fraser. Now, Rebecca was brought up in a very
0:53.7	dysfunctional household. Her parents were getting a
0:56.1	divorce and like any child, she started to play up. She ended up being in a group of girls that was
1:02.7	very destructive, drugs were involved. And her perception of that was she was bad. She was the naughty
1:08.9	girl. And all of that feeling unseen and not noticed led
1:13.6	her to be a magnet to narcissistic relationships. So if you feel like when you look back on your
1:20.9	childhood and your behavior was maybe not so good, you weren't the good girl, then this episode
1:27.4	is for you because we are lifting
1:29.4	the shame on behaviour. There are no bad parts of you. And we're looking at why our childhood
1:36.1	really feeds into these types of abusive relationships we end up in. So I'm so excited,
1:43.5	Rebecca, for you to be here on this episode. And I know we've got
1:47.4	so much to talk about, obviously on your intake form, all of those things. I could relate to a lot of
1:52.8	that stuff as well, let me say. And when you filled that form in, tell me what started to come up for you. What were the kind of key elements that
2:04.1	you thought, where did this come from? How did I end up in this relationship? What was your
2:09.6	thought processes as you were filling it in as it was obviously, you know, bringing up past
2:14.0	experiences? I think it starts to become more obvious. So like when you unpick it,
2:21.7	you're looking and you're going, oh, okay, I wasn't shown what a good relationship looked like
2:28.0	when I was a child. Like I felt quite isolated. I didn't have a good group of friends. They weren't really friends.
	...

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