I didn't know about "love bombing" or "gas lighting" or "narcissistic personality disorder" until I got involved with someone who - I found out after the event - displayed many of the characteristics of a "narc".
During the period immediately after my entanglement with a "narc" I suffered from an emotional collapse and showed many of the classic signs of PTSD.
I wouldn't say that my particular "narc" was the worst on the market, but she did adhere to the classic pattern of love bombing me, to reel me in, and once she hooked me in became progressively more abusive and belittling.
My relationship lasted barely two months, because I've got a healthy sense of self-preservation... but she did, in classical "narc" behaviour reel me in several times before I finally released myself from her.
Back then - with the encouragement of my "narc" (who is a self-promoting genius) - I shared way too much of my life story on Facebook... and it was perhaps because of that, that I made friends with someone who had been on the receiving end of narcissistic abuse for three years. At the time she was still trying to detach from her "narc", who was still "hoovering" her, even though he was in the beginnings of a relationship with a new victim.
I remember trying to reach out to his new victim, to warn her about the way he had treated my friend, but rather, she was hostile and suspicious of me and even went and told this "narc", who then messaged me a tirade of the filthiest abuse I'd ever received from anyone. It was actually quite scary... and I felt immediately stupid for interfering. His new victim was, ironically, a relationship and tantra teacher, Shakti Sundari... and, despite her knowledge, she had to learn about narcissism the hard way.
I wish she hadn't had to. I wish she could have escaped this man's clutches and lived in blissful ignorance... but now she is wise - painfully wise - after the event, and has, in a very vulnerable and open way - shared her experience. This is the article she wrote on the subject
https://www.shaktisundari.com/single-post/2018/01/24/Narcissism-and-the-Twin-Flame-Fantasy
I hope all of you will read and share this article, because no-one should have to suffer at the hands of a narc... and if you are informed enough, you will recognise a narc before he/ she gets his/ her hands on you.
You don't know what its like until you went through it yourself. thank you for sharing your story!