How To Move On From A Narcissistic Ex That's Found New 'Love'

Going through a breakup is not easy. It's even more difficult when you need to figure out how to move on from a toxic, narcissistic ex — and even more so when your ex moves on before you.

This can leave you wondering: Can a narcissist change? Did he ever truly love me? Does he love his new girlfriend?

First, I have to mention something I think a lot of people miss when they're thinking back about an ex that really hurt them and comparing their relationship to their ex's new flame. Whether he truly has narcissistic personality disorder or he's a just a garden-variety malignant jerk, what matters is how he treated you.

It matters how your relationship went off the rails. It might have been decent to even amazing in the beginning, but isn't that true for 99 percent of all relationships? Isn't that what gets us hooked in the first place? That feeling of buoyant happiness, lust, and excitement where we can't think of anything else?

Otherwise, we wouldn't find ourselves so deliciously entangled in someone else's world. No one would wake up one day and wonder what happened for them to get there.

And therein lies the rub. You're seeing that fresh beginning that graces a relationship with someone new, and every bit of it reminds you of what it was like when it was actually good between you and him.

The idea that someone else is getting that instead of you — it's gut-wrenching. It doesn't help that in order to get through the bad times, you likely went through the memories of the good times over and over in your head like a talisman that you wished would protect you from the danger of the true realization that this situation was not at all how you pictured it would turn out to be.

You see, questions about new flames after narcissistic abuse are really questions about whether or not there is something flawed about you and whether you could have gotten a different result by changing your behavior somehow. You find yourself asking real, raw questions like:

If I was someone else (like this new girlfriend of his), would this still have happened?
Was it my fault that he abused me?
What's wrong with me that he treated me this way?
Did he just throw me away because I'm not ____ (young, pretty, thin, enough of something... else)?
If he's a narcissist, can we just get him therapy and cure him, and maybe turn back the clock to the good 'ol days?

You get the point. Being on the receiving end of narcissistic abuse doesn't say anything about your character, but it says a lot about the abuser. Whether he really loved you or not is not the final word on whether or not you are lovable.

The bottom line is, the fact that he's moved on with someone else just means that he's chosen someone else to unleash his lackluster relationship skills on. You and I have no idea what is going on there, and frankly, it's none of our business.

Analyzing what he's doing with the new woman just keeps you stuck and thinking potentially ugly thoughts about yourself. He could be doing all sorts of bizarre behavior with her or he could be a perfect angel (for right now). It doesn't matter.

Believing that you did something to bring all of this on is simple victim-blaming. It's a fruitless quest for control over what happened. Unfortunately, this control isn't coming. All you can control is your choice to heal, move on, try to pick better next time, and cherish the people in your life who truly treat you well.

How To Move On From A Narcissistic Ex That's Found New 'Love'

You’re happier without him. (Trust us.)

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