Why Narcissists Use Pet Names Instead of Calling You by Your Real Name

What if the sweet pet name your partner calls you isn’t affection at all — but rather designed to keep you off balance? In this episode, Dr. Kerry and co-host Lynn Strathdee unpack one of the strangest and most overlooked patterns in narcissistic relationships: the use of pet names. Learn why some narcissists even speak about themselves in the third person, and the chilling moment when a “compliment” reveals exactly what they really think of you. Podcast Extra Exclusive Segment …

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You’ve Been Brainwashed! How Manipulators Train You to Never Leave

Were you brainwashed to stay — and didn’t even know it? A cult doesn’t need a compound, robes, or a manifesto. All it needs is two people: one who sets the rules and one who lives by them. Dr. Kerry reads your most powerful wake-up moments — from the woman who recognized every cult trait laid down in the first three months of a nine-year relationship, to the viewer who grew up in a home where productivity meant safety, to the one who finally had a word for what she’d survived: br…

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Born into a Cult. Then Married a Narcissist. Is Coercive Control Stealing Your Life?

Were you born into a cult — or did you unknowingly marry one? If you’ve ever felt trapped, controlled, and unable to trust your own reality — whether in a religion, a family system, or a relationship — you may have been living inside a cult of two. Narcissistic abuse operates through the same coercive control and psychological manipulation that keep cult members from ever questioning their reality. Brooke Deanne, trauma healing mentor and author of Shattered, Broken and Beau…

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You Saw the Red Flags and Stayed Anyway. Here’s the Real Reason Why

Why can you spot every red flag, name every tactic, and still find yourself in another toxic relationship? A commenter recently wrote that she had been raised by three narcissists, married to one, dated another for five years, recently lost a friendship to one, and a former partner just resurfaced. She wrapped up by saying “the law of averages can’t explain it. So what can?” In this episode, Dr. Kerry unpacks why insight alone never sets survivors free. Submit Your Question …

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Nobody Taught Us What a Healthy Relationship Looks Like — Here’s the Cost

Nobody taught us what a healthy relationship should feel like. Not in school. Not in graduate training. Not in the culture we grew up in. And that missing lesson? It’s costing survivors years of confusion, repeat heartbreak, and an obsession with understanding the very people who harmed them. This week marks a major shift for Breaking Free from Narcissistic Abuse. After a year of flying solo, Dr. Kerry welcomes Lynn Strathdee as her new co-host — a UK-based psychodynamic psychoth…

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Alpine Divorce: When Narcissistic Abuse Turns Physically Dangerous

Have you heard of an Alpine Divorce? During a listener’s two-year marriage to a psychopath, her husband took her hiking and then left her clinging to a rock in gale-force winds while he filmed her terror and laughed. This is what’s commonly called an “Alpine Divorce.” It is also an example of malignant sadism. In this episode, Dr. Kerry unpacks one of the most chilling tactics in a dangerous personality’s playbook. Learn how some abusers engineer life-threatening situati…

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Narcissists Are Waging a Secret War Against You: 5 Dark Psychology Experts Expose Their Tactics

As we honor Memorial Day, there’s another war, something that rages invisible, deliberate, and inside the most intimate relationships. This episode is dedicated to you. In this special compilation, 5 world-class experts answer the questions survivors ask most: How did I end up here? Why didn’t I see it coming? And why was I the one chosen? Discover how narcissists and dangerous personalities identify, groom, and trap their targets — and why your kindness, not your weakness, mad…

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Why Your Kids May Have Blamed You for the Narcissist’s Abuse — and What to Do Now

A listener from Texas writes in: after escaping a narcissistic marriage, her adult daughter is now demanding that she admit that she was an abuser too. How does she reach her daughter now? In this episode, Dr Kerry unpacks one of the most painful and least-talked-about consequences of narcissistic abuse — what happens to your children when you stay. How do you hold two devastating truths at the same time: you were a victim, and your child was hurt by your inability to leave? Subm…

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Childhood Neglect: The Hidden Damage From Narcissistic Families That Follows You Into Every Relationship

Did you experience childhood neglect? If you keep repeating painful patterns in your relationships — choosing wrong partners, feeling invisible, never asking for what you need — this might be why. Dr. Rachna Buxani, author of “Unseen,” joins Dr. Kerry to expose the hidden roles children are assigned in narcissistic family systems — and the lasting damage those roles leave behind in every relationship you’ll ever have. Childhoos neglect doesn’t stay in childhood — it follows you. PODCAST E…

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The Real Reason You Can’t Stop Snooping on Your Narcissistic Partner

A YouTube viewer asks: What about someone’s makeup drives them to snoop instead of simply addressing the red flags? In this episode, Dr. Kerry digs deeper into a question raised in the February 19, 2026, Fan Mail segment, Feeling the Urge to Snoop on Your Partner? Here’s What It’s Really Telling You. Learn why victims of narcissistic abuse feel compelled to hunt for proof and why it never brings the relief you’re looking for. Submit Your Question If you’d like Dr. Kerry to answer your…

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