How to recognize and recover from everyday sociopaths - narcissists

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Legal Abuse Syndrome: the result of facing sociopaths in court

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Book review — Legal Abuse Syndrome: A Preventable Public Health Problem, by Dr. Karin Huffer Review by Donna Andersen You're traumatized by your experience with a sociopath. Then you face a divorce, child custody or some other court battle against the sociopath — and you're traumatized all over again. The sociopath lies about you, smears your reputation and makes false accusations against you. So do his or her attorneys. And the clueless judge allows all of it. Thirty years ago, Dr. Karin Huffer, a marriage and family therapist, witnessed this phenomenon among her clients. No matter what she did to help them, they kept getting worse. Then she realized that everything she did for the …

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Tribute to Karin Huffer, author of Legal Abuse Syndrome

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The survivor community lost a shining star recently with the passing of Karin Huffer, who wrote Legal Abuse Syndrome: A preventable public health problem. She also pioneered the use of the Americans with Disabilities Act to help people dealing with sociopaths, narcissists and psychopaths get a fair hearing in court. Through her consulting practice, Karin personally accompanied her clients to court to help them stand up against manipulative sociopaths, whom she called "power centered individuals." Despite the fact that she was a very senior citizen and needed a walker to get around, she was absolutely indomitable in court, protecting her clients against lies, smear campaigns, and power …

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“I encountered a serial killer and escaped”

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In response to a question on Quora, a writer called "Frances Red" said yes, she had escaped a serial killer, and told the story about her ex-boyfriend, Kylr Yust: Out of nowhere he bashed my head into the dashboard, zip tied my throat to the back of his seat, and forced himself upon me. I was traumatized, all these years we had been friends and he has never even so much as raise his voice at me now all the sudden he is beating the living crap out of me and stealing a big part of my innocence and Trust. After he was finished he Release Me From the zip tie that was around my throat. He kissed me and told me he had to do that to make sure he could trust me. That was then he told me that he had …

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Why sociopaths can’t love

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One winter, my husband, Terry Kelly, and I traded colds. I got sick first, and Terry made chicken soup and did what he could to make me feel comfortable. Then, despite my best efforts to keep my germs to myself, Terry got sick. By this time I was feeling better. So I went to the store and bought cold medicine, tissues and orange juice, because I'd used everything up. I made him chicken soup. I even made him a pot of chili. As I did all this, I noticed a warm feeling within me. It was the joy of taking care of someone I loved. I was concerned about his health and wellbeing. I was happy and energized to help him. It was a feeling sociopaths never experience, because sociopaths …

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Does my psychopath miss me?

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Editor's note: The following article refers to male psychopaths. Women can also be sociopaths, psychopaths and other disordered individuals. Does my sociopath/psychopath miss me? The short answer is “no.” The qualified answer is “yes, in appearance, but only as long as you can afford him.” Since psychopaths are unable to have true feelings, once you are removed from his picture, you are gone forever. Somebody else with financial security will replace you, and then when the money is gone or things go sour, somebody else will replace that person. Psychopaths, we know, are not able to feel gratitude, love, loyalty or any kind of guilt or remorse that could tie him to you.  During the …

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29 excuses that sabotage our instincts about sociopaths

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Almost all of us have an instinctive warning that something is terribly wrong early in an involvement with a sociopath (antisocial, narcissist, borderline, histrionic, psychopath). Almost all of us ignore the warning. Last week I wrote about the physical symptoms that we often feel in 8 ways your body warns you about sociopaths. I included fear, chills, difficulty breathing, crying, pounding heart, upset stomach, nightmares and a nagging feeling. The post was widely shared, and several Lovefraud readers added more physical warning signs: immobilizing exhaustion, poor appetite, nervous tension, tiredness, cloudy thinking, vague upset, tightness in the chest. When we're involved with a …

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Australian woman loses $305,000 in romance scam

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Scammers continue to pose as American soldiers. In a terrible recent romance scam, a 34-year-old woman from Brisbane, Australia lost AU$305,000 (US$220,210) to a man posing as a US soldier. The con man, Cosmos Emeh, 32, claimed to be deployed in Syria, but he was actually also living in Brisbane, with his Australian partner. He convinced the target to send him $200,000 via a money transfer service. Then, in a highly unusual twist, he actually showed up at the woman's home, claiming to be a "fixer" for the soldier, and collected and additional $105,000. Finally, the woman called the police. The cops conducted a sting operation and caught the guy. This was also highly unusual — usually, I …

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How a disordered elderly mother expresses love

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Browsing, a good day Mom sat in the store fancy chair hugging the bag in a protecting embrace. She had made an impenetrable Chinese wall with her arms, fiercely defending from me a stolen $2,000 Prada bag. The round mound rested on her lap, while I tried to convince her that the store cameras knew exactly what was going on. We got some looks from wealthy shoppers that seemed to reprove my pushy, disrespectful behavior toward this 90 year-old.  Perhaps they thought I wanted to keep her money. She, however, felt very entitled to take from the wealthier ones. I felt I was abusing my mother by forcing her to release her “shopping choices.” But this wasn’t our first rodeo at the mall. Steali …

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Webinar teaches you to spot a sociopath or narcissist partner

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Upcoming webinar: The Basics: Love Fraud and How to Avoid It Jan. 16, 2019 • 8-9 pm ET $18.75 — or FREE with the Lovefraud 5-part Masterclass Instructor: Donna Andersen, author of Lovefraud.com  More info Sociopaths and narcissists are easy to spot, once you know what to look for. That's exactly what I'll teach you in this 1-hour webinar, so you can keep them out of your life. The Basics: Love Fraud and How to Avoid It This is the original Lovefraud webinar, and I'm presenting it again for the first time in almost three years, updated with the latest information. Here are highlights of what you'll learn in the webinar: What is a sociopath? Where are they? Male and female s …

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Claudia Paradise, LCSW: How to talk to kids about an absent daddy

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Lovefraud received the following question: Can you address absent sociopathic fathers and how to respond to a young child who has begun asking about him? My 4-year-old has started talking about her “daddy,” who she could not possibly remember. The last time she saw him was when she was 2 and the total time spent with him in her lifetime has probably been 12 hours total. I have cut things off with him entirely since his last visit. Anyways, lately she pretends to call him on her toy phone, or tells me that her daddy is going to pick her up from school. I think all this talk has stemmed from her best friend at school, whose dad comes to pick her up every day. Not surprisingly, none of th …

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