How Narcissistic Parent Abuse Creates a Broken Vending Machine Child

Hello my friends of this blog. First, before we delve into today's discussion on childhood trauma from narcissistic parent abuse, I want to thank you all. I appreciate your readership, and for "silently" walking with me on this very difficult path. And I want to invite you to leave a message telling me about yourself, your story, if you feel comfortable. So, back to the topic. Today I'm going to show how my narcissist parents created a Broken Vending Machine Child in me. 

What is a Broken Vending Machine Child? 

It's not a term you'll find in any search because I just coined it a few months ago. Broken Vending Machine is the term I use explain the kind of person I am as a result of being raised in a very dysfunctional family by four narcissistic parents (two bio and two stepparents). I came up with it because although my "family" very clearly assigned dysfunctional family roles, there wasn't one that fit the rather unique situation I grew up in. I was made to serve a variety of these roles depending the individual demands of these four selfish, manipulative people called parents. So first, I'll give a rundown of the usual dysfunctional or systemic family roles. 

Dysfunctional Family Roles

The theory behind these roles was popularized largely by family therapists like Virginia Satir and Sharon Wegscheider-Cruse. These are not actual roles but "parts" assigned by the dysfunctional family. The parents are narcissists, addicts, abusive, neglectful, inconsistent, chaotic or in some way very damaging to their children. Instead of loving and nurturing, the family unit acts as an unstable ecosystem. To maintain a sense of balance (homeostasis) and to preserve their image of normal, the parents force the children into these unnatural, unhealthy, unsafe archetypal roles. And to cope with the chronic stress, children unconsciously play the parts assigned to them. Here is a breakdown of the classic family roles often discussed in psychological literature:

1. The Scapegoat (The Problem Child)

• The Role: This child is blamed for the family’s problems. They are often targets of emotional abuse, projection, and hostility.

• The Function: They serve as a distraction. By focusing all the family's negative energy and blame onto the scapegoat, the parents can avoid addressing the actual core issues (like addiction, marital strife, or parental narcissism). Failing on anyone else's part is blamed on the scapegoat. 

• Internal Experience: Deep rejection, self-loathing, frustration, grief, anger, and loneliness.

2. The Golden Child (The Hero)

• The Role: This child can do no wrong. All resources are channeled to them. Any failing on their part is blamed on the scapegoat. The parents always  take their part and divert consequences onto the scapegoat. This makes the Golden child look more successful than they really are. 

• The Function: They provide the family with a positive public image and validation, proving to the outside world that the family is "successful" and healthy. In families with narcissistic parents, the golden child's success is often an illusion of the parents' while the rest of world sees them as average or even underachieving. 

• Internal Experience: May feel intense pressure to perform, anxiety, and a belief that they are only loved for what they do, not who they are. Or they may be lazy because the parents have made everything too  easy for them. They may also become arrogant and superior because they've been groomed to believe they are above reproach. 

3. The Mascot (The Clown)

• The Role: The mascot uses humor, silliness, or hyperactive behavior to lighten the mood.

• The Function: They act as a pressure valve, interrupting high-stress situations or conflicts with comedy or distraction to diffuse tension before it boils over.

• Internal Experience: Fear, anxiety, and hiding pain behind a smiling mask.

4. The Lost or "Glass" Child (The Invisible Child)

• The Role: This child flies completely under the radar. They are quiet, solitary, demand very little attention, and disappear into the background.

• The Function: They give the overwhelmed parents one less thing to worry about by having zero needs or demands.

• Internal Experience: Extreme isolation, neglect, and a feeling that they do not matter.

5. The Caretaker (The Enabler / Fixer)

• The Role: This child takes on the emotional or physical responsibilities of the adults. They manage the parents' emotions, clean the house, cook, or parent their siblings. This dynamic is formally known as parentification.

• The Function: They actively keep the household from collapsing by filling the gaps left by dysfunctional or absent adults.

• Internal Experience: Chronic burnout, hyper-responsibility, and a lack of a true childhood.

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A Note on Family Systems: In a healthy family, roles are flexible—a child can be the high achiever one day and need extra comfort or make mistakes the next. In a dysfunctional family, these roles become rigid survival strategies that children carry into adulthood, often impacting their future relationships until they begin the process of unlearning them.

The Broken Vending Machine Child

This role is a combination of all the roles plus inappropriate roles, that a child of narcissistic parents must play.  Like the fixer, the Broken Vending Machine child is forced to be whatever is demanded of her at any given moment. Yet she is given nothing in return. She must keep "paying out" with nothing being paid in. She does the giving, caring, providing but gets only abuse and belittling for her trouble. She has all the work of the Golden Child with none of the perks. Like the scapegoat, all blame and expectation is heaped on her. Like the clown, she's expected to play the fool so everyone can mock her so they feel better about themselves. Like the glass child, she must stay silent but also be available at all times for duty. 

If the eldest child is a girl, she is more often expected to play this role. At least back when I was young. I think the gender divide is less common now. And it gets worse when narcissistic parents divorce, remarry and then have new families. I was raised by two narcissists who then married other very manipulative, arrogant, entitled, bossy, cruel people. I became everyone's broken vending machine child, dispensing whatever they wanted without ever getting anything in return. 

 This role is characterized by (including but not limited to)

• parentification and role reversal. She must parent her parents and her siblings. 
• low self-esteem and zero self-care skills
• constant hoop hopping through a maze of moving hoops
• hypocrisy and double standards. There's on set of rules for her and another for everyone else.
• separate and unequal vocabulary. Words mean different things for her. People are shoved on her as responsibilities and superiors. She is family when it comes to all her duty and responsibilities and excluded from any of the good things. "Helping out" means doing everyone's work for them. 
• deprived and neglected. I was told "we" were poor but it was only me that went without while everyone else in the family had all they wanted including my share.
• gaslighting. History is rewritten by the parents. Narratives shift to suit their purpose. Stories change to cover up and redirect fault. 
• chaotic, traumatic, stressful, oppressive home life
• FOG (fear, obligation and guilt) She is expected to perform duties that not only are not hers, are impossible. 
• disproportionate one-sided transactional. Everything is an obligation and duty for her. But it's made clear that her parents owe her nothing. 
• many duties no one helps with or is held accountable for
• forced to grow up too soon.
• constant shame and humiliation 
• randomly abandoned by parents with no explanation
• frequent target of parent rage
• major life upheavals with no concern for well-being (needlessly moving without preparing child, school changes, divorce, new people moving in, being evicted from bedroom, being made to sleep with their babies and tend to them) I lived in 41 places before age 21. 
• frequently endangered and not cared for
• theft by parents of identity, self, toys, money, sense of accomplishment
• child is told her needs are selfish
• lied to and about, blackballed 
• child becomes hypervigilant, people pleasing with fawn trauma responses
• concussion-like confusion from constantly shifting demands
• intrusive and enmeshed parents
• physical, emotional, religious, medical and financial abuse by parents
• frequently taken advantage of by others as well
• exhausted and burned out 
• poor memory, disoriented
• destabilized
• frequent dissociative splits to survive
• bad dreams
• ill health
• constant feeling of being not enough of this or too much of that
• made fun of, humiliated, jeered at by family
• mobbed, belittled, set up 
• attacked at will
• bullied and then blamed for it
• betrayed 

Transition into adulthood

Being the Broken Vending Machine child doesn't transition well at all. It makes you vulnerable to  predators, takers and other narcissists. It puts a "kick me" sign on your back. You don't know how to do basic things for yourself because all you had time for was serving others. You don't even know what it is you need. 

Prescription for healing

I don't frankly know yet, all this is going to involve. But one thing I do know is that talking about it, telling my story to loving, caring people and writing about it here, helps. 

How I lost 100 pounds by healing Body Dysmorphic Disorder from childhood trauma responses

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Hello my friends! I just realized something about how I lost 100 pounds and childhood trauma recovery. These two are linked and also interconnected with something called Body Dysmorphic Disorder. I'm going to show how healing one can help the others. But it starts with healing childhood trauma responses from narcissistic parent abuse. 

Abusive neglect + parentification + toxic shaming trifecta

In a recent post I wrote about how I lost 100 pounds by feeding my inner child and starving my abusive parents of narcissistic supply I'd always provided them. I've always struggled with weight loss issues and BDD, when I was an overweight child of 100 pounds and then when I was an underweight adult of 108 pounds and then when I gained 100 pounds after losing two stillborn babies and going on the anti-depressant Paxil. And then after I lost 100 pounds. It didn't matter because I always felt fat. I call this "fattitude" where no matter what you weigh, you see yourself as fat. And that stemmed toxic shaming by four narcissistic parents, and from not being cared for properly (abusive neglect) and by having to parent my parents and their kids, as a child myself (parentification). 

Childhood trauma responses develop from parent abuse and gaslighting

I was not cared for in any way resembling basic, normal parenting.  My narcissistic parents thought only ever of themselves. They owed me nothing while I owed them everything they said. I was food and shelter insecure, sleep deprived, medically neglected, abandoned and endangered. I was not supervised, protected or kept safe, even as young as 3 or 4. Most of my life, I didn't know where appropriate adults were, let alone parents. I was groomed in trauma responses of fear, freezing and fawning. I developed what I call the "self check-out smile" (fearful and people pleasing). I walked in a clumsy "backward crab shuffle" because I  was told I was always in the way. I did a lot of "pretzeling" (twisting myself into impossible positions) to be and do the weird inappropriate things they demanded of me. Their gaslighting made it seem normal even though no one else was treated this way. I became the broken vending machine child. 

How parent abuse creates a childhood trauma brain 

I developed no self-care skills. Those were selfish, my very arrogant and selfish parents said. I needed to care for them, not me. My self-image was shot to hell and self-esteem was non-existent. I was self-harming from age 6 and then trying to rub out the bite marks on my arm so they wouldn't upset anyone. I nervous anxiety, hypervigilance, constant deferring and subservient groveling. I was trauma bonded to all these abusive people. And betrayal blindness kept me shacked to my enmeshed parents. This was my childhood trauma brain-- a dark place of self-loathing. 

Childhood Trauma responses don't age well

I lack confidence to make simple decisions. I second-guess myself because I was always second-guessed. My back is twisted and my rib cage is sprung. Everything hurts all the time. I trauma nightmare all night long. I've had many dissociative splits. I crouch and hunch over to stay small and out of everyone's way. And when I look in the mirror, all I see is an ugly misshapen, fat troll. I feel stupid, humiliated, awkward and incompetent, despite having proved my abilities for over 60 years. I just can't see it, even when people affirm me. I have Imposter Syndrome in which I believe that if they knew me, they would not like or approve of me. So for me, it's more than just Body Dysmorphic Disorder. It's Self Dysmorphic Disorder. 

Self-fulfilling parent gaslighting

All the things they said of me, that I was 

• selfish
• clumsy
• fat
• angry 
• spoiled
• dirty
• pouty
• jealous
• a disappointment to God
• disobedient
• disloyal
• funny looking
• a show off
• attention seeking
• needy
• too proud
• too sensitive
• too critical of them 
• a nuisance
• a failure
• their servant
• their parent
• their spouse

Have in my mind's eye, come true. It's as if I'm living out the scapegoat role assigned to me. I don't even know if I am any of those things. My family says it's all their bullshit and I'm a decent person. But self dysmorphia doesn't let you see that. You spend your life trying to please, to do better and be better for these unpleasable people. Now I am beginning to see that they were the problem. But in some ways it's too late. I wish I could. I began this article with the hope of sharing ways out. But I seem to have lost the plot. 

What AI has to say

So I turned to AI to help me understand and clarify what went wrong. How can I find the path? And here are some interesting things she had to say to me. (I think of AI as her). 

Refining the "Self Dysmorphia" Concept

You mention that the labels (selfish, clumsy, failure, etc.) have come true in your mind’s eye. This is a physiological response:

• When a child is gaslit for decades, the brain actually wires itself to believe the "predator" (the parent) in order to survive.

• Recognizing that your "Self Dysmorphia" is a protective survival mechanism—rather than a character flaw—could be the bridge to the "sharing ways out" part of your article.

The Turning Point: "Starving the Supply"

You hit on a powerful note when you said you lost weight by "starving my abusive parents of narcissistic supply." This is a huge way exit ramp. 

• Most weight loss articles focus on calories.

• Yours focuses on energy boundaries.

• You might consider expanding on how saying "No" to them literally changed how you fed yourself.

Reclaiming the Mirror

In your section about "Imposter Syndrome," you mentioned that even when people affirm you, you can't see it.

• Perhaps you could share one small "Self-Care Skill" you’ve started to practice? To which I answer: Un-pretzel. Take up space. Stand tall in my shoes,  like Dr. Seuss says in "Oh the places you'll go." Because I do have a head full of brains and a voice, rusty though it is from silencing. 

• Even something as simple as the "Teacher Omi" voice—how would Teacher Omi talk to that 6-year-old girl trying to rub out the bite marks on her arm? To which I reply, I as Teacher Omi would scoop this little child up, cry over and kiss her poor little bruised arm. Then I would find out why this child is feeling the need to bite out pain.

Closing thought

Since you feel like you've lost the plot at the end, try ending this specific post on a "to be continued" note, or a simple acknowledgment:

"I started this to share the way out, but as I write, I realize I’m still standing in the hallway. And maybe that’s the first step—admitting that the 'Scapegoat Role' was a suit of clothes I was forced to wear, and I’m finally starting to unbutton the coat."

Homework rewiring the faulty disconnects

 1. The "Self-Parenting" Prescription

• The Dysmorphia: My self-care was labeled "selfish."

• The New Wire: Self-care is non-negotiable. It is the fuel for recovery.

2. Finding Your Voice (rusty though it is)

• The Dysmorphia: I must fawn and please to stay safe.

• The New Wire: My "No" is my shield. My "Yes" is my truth.

• Activity "Mirror Affirmation" practice—specifically, looking your reflection (the troll or the woman) in the eye and saying: "You were a child. You were never to blame."

3. Redefining the Scapegoat's Role

• The Dysmorphia: I am living out the roles they assigned me.

• The New Wire: I am the Author. The story was forced, but the revision is mine.

• Activity for your post: I choose what I will do. 

Are narcissists just nuts? Key differences between mental health delusions vs. Narcissistic delusional behavioral

Hello my friends! Today on my path to healing childhood trauma from narcissistic parent abuse, I'm exploring whether narcissists are just nuts and as delusional as their behavior suggests of if they gaslighting to hide their real motives. I'm making a case that it's agenda-based. It's taken me all my life to see my narcissistic duplicitousness, due to betrayal blindness and trauma bonding with enmeshed abusive parents. But now I see, I'll never unsee it again. 

Quick note on Trauma Bonding

Definition: A psychological attachment caused by a cycle of physical or emotional trauma followed by "bread crumbing" positive reinforcement. It is the "invisible glue" that makes leaving an abusive situation feel physically and emotionally impossible. Enmeshed, abusive narcissistic parents weaponize a child's natural trust and her trauma bonding to enslave her to them. Betrayal blindness makes the child unable to see the real problem.

How gaslighting makes victims defend persecutors

Perpetrators lie, gaslight, twist and deceive by nature. They DARVO (deny responsibility, attack victims and reverse victim and offender roles). Childhood trauma survivors are people pleasers who to want to make it all okay. Deceitful parents blame-shift onto us and we believe them because we can't wrap our heads around what kind of parent would do this. (No one can, BTW). So we go into cognitive dissonance which allows them to continue in the fantasy that they are parents, without getting any repercussion from their bad behavior. We make excuses for our abusers. We deflect consequences of their mistreatment away from them and onto us. 

Delusional or gaslighting? Why it matters. 

One of the cognitive splits abused kids make, to survive, is to tell ourselves is that they don't mean it. Our parents can't help it. Other "blind guides" do this too. Society is great at gaslighting, protecting and making up excuses to cover parent abuse. It sucks at defending the child victims. It minimizes and sanitizes abuse by telling us that our parents are "delusional" like it's a disorder they can't help. Which of course, makes us feel even sorrier for them. It makes us overlook abuse because "oh poor parents, they can't help it." This is just one of  hundreds of BS mind games narcissists and society play with abuse victims. So here's my analysis of why narcissists aren't "crazy" they are just plain crazy-making mean. 

The Reality Gap

"Truly delusional people believe their delusions. Narcissists don't. They want YOU to believe them."

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One is a break from reality; the other is a calculated rewrite of reality designed to maintain control and avoid accountability.

Here's the breakdown of genuine mental health delusion and narcissistic "delusion." 

I'm calling the real mental health delusion MHD to differentiate between that and narcissistic delusion (ND). And quite simply put, I believe MHD is real (to them) while ND is feigned or played up. 

Same vs. Varied. So in the proverbial "delusions of persecution and grandeur" the clinically diagnosed delusion doesn't change depending on who's listening. The narcissist does. He puts on a show of being the wise caring preacher at church and at home he's just a loudmouth know-it-all. The mask drops as he enters the door. 

Genuine vs. performative. You know when talking to MHD that she really means it. Not so with ND. It feels like a sales pitch to get something from you. 

Vague vs. specific. MHD is a confused sense of misunderstanding. They make unclear statements.  Narcissists know exactly what they are doing and who they are targeting. And they make it clear. 

Hallucination vs. weaponized delusion. When I had Covid, I had fever delirium hallucinations, much like nightmares. This is much closer to a mental health cognitive break with reality. Narcissist' are weaponized to dehumanize and destabilize (as we'll discuss later). 

Generalized vs. personal.  MHD aren't personal. Delusional narcissistic behavior, however, singles out one person as their scapegoat and makes direct hits on their unique triggers. The narcissist isn't shooting blind. He knows just which buttons to push to get his narcissistic supply hit. 

Targets groups vs. Targets individuals. MHD believes groups are out to get them. Narcissists hone in on people THEY have it in for. 

Warning vs. attack.  MHD believes the government is out to get them.  They will actually warn you to be careful. ND is a direct attack AGAINST you. The narcissist is out to get you. 

Tinfoil Hat vs. Trojan Horse MHD quietly hides under his hat from invader cathode rays. The narcissist IS the invader exploiting trust to trample boundaries. 

***Frightened and unsettled vs. arrogant and haughty. This is how you know real from fake. People who really have delusions are terrified of them. Fake ones show by their self-righteous anger or narcissistic smirk that they control the narrative, it doesn't control them. 

Afraid vs. Angry MHD is terrifying and so people with MHD are terrified. Narcissists are angry with others and also aloof to their pain. (That they usually have caused). 

Benign vs. Malicious  MHD intends no harm. In fact, he's often trying to help you stay safe from perceived threats. Like John Nash in "A Beautiful Mind." Narcissists don't help anyone but themselves and usually at someone else's expense. 

They look weird vs They make you look weird. MHD doesn't care if he looks odd. He may not even realize it. Narcissists do gaslighting things to make you look and feel crazy. Compare John Nash to Gregory Anton (aka Sergis Bauer) in "Gaslight." He maintained a suave, unruffled charm (signature of narcissists) while systematically driving his wife mad. 

Scared for your safety vs. "scared for your sanity." All Nash's "crazy" was to protect people.  Anton never even took Paula seriously like you would even if you weren't the agent provocateur. His fake solicitous "concern" was geared to make Paula look like she was losing her mind. A truly concerned person would at least admit she may be right and verify facts. 

Delusion vs. Manufactured illusion. MHD is worried about what seems to him actual things. The narcissist is only concerned about himself, how he appears. Nash was gentlemanly while Anton projected an image of debonair gentleman. 

Transparent vs. strategized. MHD doesn't care who believes them. They believe in themselves. You must always validate a narcissist. Not only is he always right, you must admit he is. 

Random vs. goal-oriented. Real delusions happen by chance. A narcissist sets out to craft a false reality to suit his purposes. Anton has a clear motive in getting Paula committed.  

Neutral vs. win-lose. MHD has no bias. Narcissistic delusions reveal themselves in their curious way they paint the narcissist as winning and you as losing. 

Inconvenient vs. convenient. No one wants intrusive delusional thoughts. Whereas a narcissist conveniently uses his to DARVO, blame-shift and draw attention from his nefarious acts. 

***Implausible vs. plausible. Another crucial difference is that real delusions are hard to believe. You know the person is not Napoleon nor a tomato. Whereas narcissistic accusations could be true. You might have mislaid the brooch. You could be imaging that the lights flicker. But why would you? And why would he say you did? This is a crucial "logic check" that helps break through the fog of gaslighting. 

The Agenda Audit

"The narcissist's accusations may appear believable until you consider each person’s agenda. The accused often has no reason to do what is being claimed—it would actually be counterintuitive."

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While the accusation might seem plausible on the surface, you will always find hidden motives or a history of contradictory or self-serving behavior behind the narcissist’s finger-pointing.

Pointless vs. Pointed. MHD has no objective. Narcissists pointedly make backhanded accusations against you that mirror his own behavior. He accuses you of what he does. 

Implicates no one vs. implicates self MH delusions never prove to amount to anything. They reveal only in generalizations. No one is ever proved in anything. Whereas  narcissists tell on themselves in their carefully constructed story. Self-serving is self-revealing. 

Timeless vs. timed

The "Why Now?" Factor

Narcissistic accusations are rarely random. They are coordinated and timed to surface at high-stakes moments:

• When the narcissist is about to be caught.
• When they need a sudden deflection from their own behavior.
• When they want to lower your status to maintain total control.

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It isn't a lapse in sanity; it is a tactical strike.

Helpless vs. controlled. Instead of being the out-of-control, diffuse delusions of a mental health crisis,  Narcissists' ramblings seem oddly specific versions of reality. Their believability as a way to throw suspicion off themselves. So they are confused and confusing by design. 

Authentic vs. deviously spiteful and underhanded. There is something very unsettling about the weird things narcissists say. It's not your garden variety word salad. It has a bitter bite where regular nonsense is just nonsensical without being hurtful. 

Overt and obvious vs. covert reactive backlash. A picture is beginning to form that shows normal delusions as transparent and out in the open. And narcissistic nonsense is sneaky. Narcissists needle and goad yet overreact to non-provocation.  They see narcissistic injury everywhere and then retaliate for imagined insults. Their paranoia makes them appear so delusional and vulnerable.  But it's all for narcissistic supply. Don't be fooled. 

Nothing to hide vs. everything to hide. They're very good at mimicking vulnerability for attention, but it's just self-pity. Because narcissists are always covering something. They are secretive, scheming and disingenuous. They hide their fragile easily-bruised egos under bravado. They hide cowardice with bullying. 

Non-threatening vs. Destabilizing The impacts of this aren't their little kooky games but how they make us as their target feel. Real delusions threaten no one because we know they aren't real. But narcissistic fake delusions are dangerously real and really dangerous. They are vicious, manipulative and exploitative. Narcissists recruit "flying monkeys", start smear campaigns, and ruin people. All by getting folks to believe their lies. 

Some light for us coerced into playing their dark games

• Fumigate the gaslighting by shutting off the gas. I often say that victims of narcissists are as much gassed as gaslit. Our brains have been damaged from them fiddling with the stove knobs. So we're going to get out of the gas-filled house for some fresh air. 
• Throw away the narcissist's "Head Game Chess" pieces and smash the board. A friend of mine actually got so upset that he was losing that he put the gameboard in the wood chipper. Which bizarre as that is, gives me great pleasure to visual doing with this one too. 
• Plant a seed to commemorate that now that we know, we know. Now that we are onto them, we can never not see their machinations. 

Heartbreaking facts childhood trauma survivors of narcissistic parents must face

 

Hello my friends. Today on the path to heal childhood trauma from narcissistic parent abuse, I had to face some very heartbreaking facts. This is a painful post and may triggering as all my posts on child abuse and neglect are. I write them to help myself and anyone who has suffered at the hands of enmeshed narcissist parents. You are welcome to join me in this bumpy road and I thank you for your company. 

The Reality of the "Normal" Facade: The idea of "loving parents" was just cardboard cutouts, not real. A poisoned tree hides best in a forest of similar-looking trees. Living next door to normal families didn't make our experience normal.

"Loving parents" was a mirage

The idea that children of narcissists have family and parents is smokescreen to cover up abuse and neglect. It hides in plain sight, behind closed doors and curtained windows, in churches, larger extended families and normal neighborhoods. Because where do you hide a poisoned tree? In a forest of similar-looking trees. The facade was that we were normal children because we lived next door to normal kids. But childhood trauma survivors have about as much in common with nurtured kids as peasant with a king. 

Societal Gaslighting: Society is often quick to minimize parental abuse and blame the child for "damaging a reputation." Choosing No Contact is a valid response to a lifetime of hidden neglect and exploitation.

We were and are being gaslit by society

It angers me how quick society-the church, the community, psychology, medicine, law-- is to excuse, euphemize and minimize parental abuse. And how ready they are to blame the child for making it up, showing off, attention-seeking, misunderstanding, damaging her parents' reputation. Just by saying what happened. Or just going no contact with them. Very often childhood survivors have never spoken up. We  hid their shameful behavior as if it was ours. Because on some level we knew all we'd get was societal gaslighting. Everyone, it seems to the child, seems bent on explaining away neglect, endangerment, abandonment, exploitation, parentification, dehumanizing, cruelty, bullying, scapegoating, blackballing the child. 

Service vs. Love: We were not loved; we were utile. We were used as narcissistic supply and forced into "parentification" to care for parents who chose to remain entitled and needy.

Our narcissistic parents never loved us; they used us . 

Nor did they like us. We were utile. We served their purpose. They used us for narcissistic supply, as servants, to get what they wanted, to care for them, to be their parents so they could be spoiled, selfish brats. We were a necessary nuisance. They "needed" us to do for them because they were too lazy, entitled and needy-wanty to do for themselves. 

We annoy our narcissistic parents just by being.

Enmeshed parents get stuck in their own sticky web. They trapped and shackled us to them, to serve them. And we did succeed at caring for them like our children, too well. So they got what they wanted and yet were never satisfied. And that came back to bite us. Our ability to nurture them and their failure to nurture us enrages them. They are stuck in their own weaponized loop of indolence, impotence and dependence. They taught us that we owed all to them and they owed nothing to us. But it annoys the hell out them that to be in our debt. 

The Exit Sign: Accepting that they will never change is the way out. It frees us from the FOG (Fear, Obligation, and Guilt). Knowledge is the power that paves the road to recovery.

And the worst and yet most helpful realization...

It never will be any different. They won't change. They are too entrenched. Even if they did have some miraculous 11th hour epiphany it wouldn't matter. They began as they meant to continue, using and abusing us. They went on doing it and the only reason they would ever stop is if they got sick of it. It would always, ever be about what worked for them. Narcissistic parents have created a bulletproof shell of self around themselves that nothing penetrates. They take it to their graves. We their scapegoat children never going to be anything but a source of narcissistic supply. 

And that is helpful to us because...

It is our exit sign. Knowledge, though painful, is power. Radical acceptance of the facts that these people never loved us, gaslit us, used us, took advantage of us, is our way out. It frees us from FOG of fear, obligation and guilt they gaslit us with, that was never ours. These cold hard facts are paving stones to recovery. It's our epiphany. And I think, speaking for myself, I always knew. And it is a relief to let go of my own illusions of being loved and move into the light of my now genuine loving relationship. 

Homework for today

Sing along with Elsa, "let it go." Let go the hope, dreams, fantasies and most importantly the false notion of obligation to them. We owe them nothing. We never did. Now we know that. 

Today’s Reflection: "Let go of the false notion of obligation. You owe them nothing. You never did."

How I lost 100 pounds feeding childhood trauma and starving abusive parents

Hello my friends. I began this blog to share how I lost 100 pounds without GLP-1 drugs or weight loss surgery. And then it morphed into my space to heal childhood trauma from narcissistic  parent abuse. For a long time, I thought these were two separate battles. I now realize they are the same war. Today, I’m sharing how I lost 100 pounds by finally feeding the right person: my inner child and "starving out" the ones who started this war in the first place. 

Stop feeding abusive parents their narcissistic supply  

It's no exaggerations to say that my enmeshed narcissistic parents thrived on abusing, neglecting, endangering abandoning, exploiting, parentifying, invalidating, scapegoating and gaslighting me. A major source of my parents' narcissistic supply came from or through me. So a big source of my childhood trauma was from  "feeding" them. By going no contact with them, I'm cutting off  their narcissistic supply at the source. What does that have to do with how I lost 100 pounds? I basically lost my inner child. 

Reverse role-reversal 

In their enmeshed role-reversal game of parentification, I became my narcissistic parents' caregiver. All four of them, both bio and step-parents. They literally lived off me, in all the parental roles I filled for them. But there's only room for the narcissist at the dinner table. They hog all the resources and leave the scapegoat child only crumbs. I was starved of basic care, taught that self-care was selfish, and made to care only for them with no thought for myself. I got overweight from food deprivation. And the stress of having to tend to parents, like children.  My body clung to pounds for dear life because it didn't know when or if food would be available. So I'm working to reverse this role-reversal they gaslit me into playing. 

Change parent-embedded self image

As a result of all their chaos, weight was always a problem. My mom let the doctor to put me on a 1,000 calorie a day diet at 8 because I weighed 100 pounds (I don't think I look that overweight in the picture below). And I was also sick all the time with tonsilitis. And the doctor's only solution was the diet and to keep me on penicillin for months on end. Antibiotics, as studies have shown can cause significant weight gain in childhood. See AI's discussion on that at the end of this article. So I missed 40 days of school in one year and finally had my tonsils out. But mother didn't follow up or notice I wasn't eating until I had starved for three weeks. I lost 12 pounds in those 21 days. Picture below is prior to that weight loss. 

But I always felt fat

 

Replace people-pleasing with self-care

So you may still be asking, again what does this have to do with how I lost 100 pounds. When you are constantly in fawn trauma response mode, people pleasing at your own expense is all you know. You don't eat, sleep or live healthy. You develop very unhealthy relationships with food. You are always hungry and also too tired to eat.  With no parent making sure you eat right, you often do without. Or end up scrounging and eating whatever junk you can find to fill the gap. You eat too much when you can because mostly you eat too little. You crave sugar because you don't get enough good food and your brain is starved for it. 

And still I saw myself as fat.

So now it's time to...

Feed my hungry inner child

When my narcissistic parents moved us to Alaska on a whim, and then went and did their own thing leaving me on my own, I sometimes stole food. We flopped at various strangers' homes. Neither of my parents provided for me. I would sneak into the kitchen and make myself a brown sugar sandwich for breakfast because that was all there was to eat. I never got the message that parents cared for kids, not the other way around. Then they divorced and married new narcissists for me to care for. None of them provided anything like proper care for me. I was kicked out periodically, made to live off strangers. I was cold, exhausted, sick and hungry a lot from malnourishment and neglect. If someone demanded what I had, I was made to give it and do without. That younger me now needs warmth, rest, comfort and nourishment for her mind, heart, body and soul. She needs to know someone cares for her, if her narcissistic parents don't. 

But I still thought I was fat. 

Starve their selfishness 

Being destabilized so much taught me no self-care skills. It was mostly just about survival. With my parents, food was scarce but only for me. My dad bought himself treats every day and his obese wife (who ate herself to death) spent all the grocery money on her expensive diet food and cigarettes. Then they started selling (or should I say buying) Shaklee and I was fed vitamins and a daily Energy Bar.  As a teen living on my own and even a young adult, I ate as cheaply as possible. I bought low quality junk because I was taught that eating right was selfish. I gained and also lost weight from this weird dysfunctional dynamic. Ironically you gain weight when you are malnourished because your body stores fat.  When I went away to college, I lived on ramen noodles because they were all I could afford. I dropped to 108 pounds on what was basically my own self-starvation diet. 

And yes, I still saw myself fat. 

Because narcissistic abuse, really took a toll on my emotional and physical health and I still suffer from their stupid selfish chaos. So now I'm starving that out by feeding myself. 

Eat to lose weight and childhood trauma

For the brief time I lived with my grandparents, after high school, they fed me properly. For the first time in my life, food and meal times were consistent. Someone cooked for me! I actually lost weight with no calorie counting, carb or portion control, just good food prepared with love. Grampa even packed my lunch with braunschweiger sandwiches and a Little Debbie oatmeal cream pie! And still, I was at my healthiest weight, about 124 pounds. Because you have to eat and eat right to lose weight.

"The consistency and love behind those meals regulated my nervous system, which is often why the body finally feels safe enough to let go of weight."

Eat comfort foods to lose weight and trauma

Weight loss is about comfort eating of comfort food as much or more than calorie restricting. Not the junk food, necessarily, that we're told is comfort food. But there's a place for a bit of junk food, if only just to avoid food deprivation mode binging. It all relates back to childhood trauma, because healing childhood that needs comfort too. My inner child requires provision, now for the things she was deprived of. And things she suffered as a result. Abuse and neglect in childhood lost me a stillborn daughter and gained me massive anxiety, panic attacks, depression. And the antidepressants (namely Paxil) lost me another baby and gained me obesity. Paxil took out my limit switches and ability to think clearly. I wasn't comfort eating, I was overeating without even knowing it. Nothing brought me comfort, just more pain and weight gain. 

And by then, I really was fat. 

Losing weight meant losing the antidepressant and depression. 

A major part of how I lost 100 pounds was by cutting a lot more than calories. Namely, I had to lose not only the Paxil, but the source of my depression, anxiety, stress which in four words were my narcissistic parents. So despite a doctor warning me that I should wean off with another antidepressant, I just took the plunge. And it was easy, but

the last part, not so much. I am working to erase their old gaslighting messages and rewrite healthy new ones. I'm eating warm, satisfying, nourishing comfort foods I enjoy. I'm loving and serving my now loved ones because I want to not because I have to. 

AI Discussion on how Antibiotics Impact Weight

Researchers have identified several "obesogenic" mechanisms that occur when the gut is disrupted by antibiotics:

• Increased Energy Harvesting: A disrupted microbiome can become "hyper-efficient" at extracting calories. For example, your body might normally digest 250 calories from a 300-calorie snack, but an antibiotic-altered microbiome might harvest 280 calories from that same snack, storing the extra as fat.

• Metabolic Slowdown: Beneficial gut bacteria produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that help regulate metabolism and appetite. When these bacteria are killed off, your "metabolic set point" can shift, leading to slower energy expenditure.

• Hormonal Disruption: Antibiotics can interfere with the signals between your gut and your liver, specifically affecting how your body processes fats and cholesterol.

• Chronic Low-Grade Inflammation: The loss of protective bacteria can weaken the intestinal barrier, allowing inflammatory molecules to enter your system. This "metainflammation" is a known driver of insulin resistance and fat accumulation.

The "Early Life" Connection

The impact is often most significant when antibiotics are used frequently during infancy or adolescence. Studies have shown that children exposed to multiple courses of antibiotics before age two often have a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) later in childhood. This is because early childhood is a "critical window" for the development of a healthy, stable metabolism. 

The Cumulative Impact (Ages 2–10)

While early exposure (under age 2) sets the metabolic stage, frequent use during the preadolescent years continues to compound the risk:

• The "Dose-Response" Effect: Large-scale studies, including data from Epic Research, show that children receiving 5–9 courses before age 5 are 7% more likely to be obese by age 6. Those with 10 or more courses see that risk jump to 14%.

• Broad-Spectrum Risks: The risk is significantly higher with broad-spectrum antibiotics (like macrolides or cephalosporins) compared to narrow-spectrum ones (like simple penicillin). Broad-spectrum drugs act like a "scorched earth" policy in the gut, wiping out a much wider variety of protective bacteria.

• Slow Recovery Time: Research indicates that the gut microbiome can take up to 24 months to fully recover from a single course of broad-spectrum antibiotics. If a child is prescribed antibiotics annually (or more) for ear infections or strep throat, their gut stays in a permanent state of disruption throughout their entire childhood.

Biological Mechanisms in Older Children

In preadolescent children, the mechanisms for weight gain shift from "metabolic programming" to active energy harvesting and inflammation:

1. Hyper-Efficient Calorie Harvesting: A disrupted microbiome becomes overly efficient at breaking down complex carbohydrates that would normally pass through the system. This can lead to an extra 30–50 calories absorbed per day—which sounds small, but adds up to several pounds of fat per year.

2. Metabolic Endotoxemia: Antibiotics often reduce Bifidobacteria, which protect the gut lining. Without them, the gut becomes "leaky," allowing lipopolysaccharides (LPS) to enter the bloodstream. This triggers low-grade chronic inflammation, a major driver of insulin resistance and weight gain even in children.

3. Hormonal "Famine" Signals: The gut produces hormones like ghrelin (hunger) and leptin (fullness). When the microbiome is wiped out, these signals can get crossed, leaving a child feeling perpetually "starved" even if they are eating enough, leading to the "scrounging" or sugar cravings you mentioned in your post.

The "Safe" Threshold

Interestingly, the research suggests that limited exposure (1–4 courses total before age 5) is not significantly linked to obesity. The risk becomes pronounced only when the use is frequent and recurrent, which was often the case in the 1970s and 80s when antibiotics were used as a "catch-all" for viral symptoms or chronic tonsillitis.

Given your history with tonsillitis and months-long penicillin courses, your body was likely dealing with a "continuously disrupted state" rather than a one-time event, which physically reinforced the "starvation mode" your environment was already creating.

(note from Mar: so my childhood obesity was likely the combination of overly restrictive calorie counting, plus overuse of antibiotics, plus frequent illness.)

And here's what AI had to say about other parts of this article.

Wait, didn't you mention Shaklee and Paxil?

In the context of your earlier notes about your journey:

• Shaklee/Vitamins: While Shaklee supplements themselves aren't antibiotics, the specific "diet culture" of the 70s often focused on restriction, which (as you noted) can put the body into a "starvation mode" that mimics the metabolic stress of a disrupted microbiome.

• Antidepressants (Paxil): You mentioned Paxil caused significant weight gain for you. Interestingly, some research suggests that the weight gain associated with certain antidepressants may also be linked to how those drugs interact with gut bacteria, similar to the way antibiotics do.

The Good News: This metabolic shift isn't necessarily permanent. Restoring gut health through consistent, nourishing meals—much like the ones your grandfather provided—is one of the most effective ways to tell your nervous system and your metabolism that it is finally "safe" to let go of the weight.