Truma Informed PTSD NARC TroopersTruma Informed PTSD NARC Troopers
N.A.R.C. Troopers: Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Collaborators
Prajinta Pesqueda talks about complex trauma, PTSD and how narcissistic abuse creates a distinct pattern of harm. She discusses symptoms, misdiagnosis, coping behaviours and why specialist, trauma‑informed support is crucial for long-term healing.
40:34•7 Jun 2026
Trauma, CPTSD and Narcissistic Abuse: Why Your Pain Makes Sense
Episode Overview
- Complex trauma often builds slowly over years, with childhood abuse and neglect stacking under later stress and adult relationship harm.
- Narcissistic abuse can create a shared fantasy and mutual psychosis that feels different from other forms of abuse and needs specialist understanding.
- PTSD after narcissistic abuse may include insomnia, hypervigilance, panic attacks, intrusive thoughts and intense emptiness, yet these reactions are normal for what happened.
- Effective recovery usually needs a mix of trauma-informed professionals, appropriate therapy modalities and peer support rather than one-size-fits-all treatment.
- Healing does not erase trauma, but over time its intensity can fade as survivors learn self-care, self-validation, and ways to live alongside their pain with more peace.
“You're not crazy. If you have been with a narcissist and now you're not and you're going through something absolutely indescribably insane that makes no sense and nobody believes you when you try to tell them, I believe you.”
How do people cope with the challenges of staying sober and safe after narcissistic abuse? This episode of N.A.R.C. Troopers zooms in on trauma, PTSD and the unique damage caused by relationships with narcissists and other cluster B personalities. Host Prajinta Pesqueda, a teacher and trauma consultant, talks through how trauma can pile up over a lifetime.
She explains complex PTSD as “stacked trauma” – like pancakes or a game of Jenga – where childhood neglect, emotional or spiritual abuse, and later adult stressors eventually become too much to hold. You’ll hear about ambient abuse that’s so subtle it feels “invisible”, yet still leaves a person confused, dysregulated and doubting their own reality.
Prajinta also breaks down collective trauma (think events like 9/11), self-inflicted trauma through harsh self-talk and maladaptive coping, and how all of this can push someone towards numbing behaviours such as drinking, drugs, compulsive sex, gambling or endless superficial relationships. The core of the episode looks at why narcissistic abuse is different from other forms of harm.
Prajinta talks about entrainment, brainwashing, isolation and the “shared fantasy” – a mutual psychosis where the victim abandons themselves and lives in the narcissist’s made‑up world. The aftermath can look like PTSD: insomnia, panic, hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts and a crushing sense of emptiness. She stresses the importance of getting the right diagnosis and support, from trauma‑informed mental health professionals to specialist groups for narcissistic abuse survivors, and highlights modalities like cognitive behavioural therapy, schema work and inner‑child healing.
There’s no quick fix, but she describes how over time the pain softens, you learn to sit beside it, and start building self‑care, faith and inner peace. If you’ve ever wondered whether what you went through “counts” as trauma, this conversation might leave you asking a better question: what would healing look like for you, starting today?
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