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Childhood Narcissistic Abuse and Adult Empathic Sensitivity

Updated: Oct 26, 2022

Childhood Narcissistic Abuse and Adult Empathic Sensitivity

Written by Randi Fine, Narcissistic Abuse Expert

Narcissistic Abuse Awareness and Guidance with Randi Fine

Having worked with hundreds of NPD abuse survivors over the years I have noted, again and again, the undeniable correlation between childhood narcissistic abuse and adult empathic sensitivity. If there is an exception to this rule I have never witnessed it.

Some empaths are born with their energetic sensitivity, but many are created through childhood trauma such as narcissistic abuse. This heightened sensitivity is a learned response, an unconscious survival mechanism likely to have developed to withstand the threatening environment from which they could not escape.

Children living under the constant threat of narcissistic abuse become hypersensitive to the danger that exists around them, particularly changes in the emotional states and moods of their abusers. In time they develop a reactionary response to subtle changes in the energy fields around them.

To manage and endure the devastating effects of the danger, emotionally abused children often put their own needs aside, monitor their own behaviors, and focus entirely upon the needs and wants of their abusers. This continual focus on the needs and emotional states of others prevents their own development of self-love, self-esteem, and healthy coping mechanisms.

Even after becoming physically removed from from the threat, adult children of narcissistic abuse remain hypersensitive to the subtle energetic changes around them. The pattern evolves from a maladaptive state to an instinctive nature.