Editor’s note: At the request of readers, the Lovefraud member “Skylar” has contributed the following article.
When dealing with malignant narcissists, psychopaths, sociopaths, borderlines, drama queens, stalkers and other emotional vampires, it’s commonly advised that no response is the best response to unwanted attention. This is often true and No Contact (the avoidance of all communication) should be used whenever possible.
There are some situations however, when No Contact is not feasible, as in when you share child custody with a psychopath. As another example, if you are being stalked by an ex, a restraining order can infuriate the unwanted suitor, and refusing to respond to him or her is seen as an insult. They might become convinced that they can MAKE you respond and in that way satiate their need for power over you.
Furthermore, many of us have tried to end a relationship with a psychopath several times, only to take them back, each time. They turned on the pity ploy and the charm, and because we didn’t understand that this is what a psychopath does, we fell for their promises to change. They know all of our emotional hooks. For them, it’s easy and fun to lure us back by appealing to our emotions. But a psychopath can’t change. In fact, when you leave a psychopath, he becomes determined to punish you even more severely for thinking you could be autonomous.
Even if we don’t take them back, the most dangerous time for a person is when they first break up with a psychopath. The psychopath feels rage at being discarded. Losing control or power over a person is not just a narcissistic injury for them; they feel profoundly empty when their partner leaves them even if they had intended to kill their partner. The reason is because they have lost control. Psychopaths need to feel in control at all times.
For all these situations, we have Gray Rock.
What it is:
So, how do we escape this parasitical leech without triggering his vindictive rage? Gray Rock is primarily a way of encouraging a psychopath, a stalker or other emotionally unbalanced person, to lose interest in you. It differs from No Contact in that you don’t overtly try to avoid contact with these emotional vampires. Instead, you allow contact but only give boring, monotonous responses so that the parasite must go elsewhere for his supply of drama. When contact with you is consistently unsatisfying for the psychopath, his mind is re-trained to expect boredom rather than drama. Psychopaths are addicted to drama and they can’t stand to be bored. With time, he will find a new person to provide drama and he will find himself drawn to you less and less often. Eventually, they just slither away to greener pastures. Gray Rock is a way of training the psychopath to view you as an unsatisfying pursuit you bore him and he can’t stand boredom.
What it’s for:
Making a psychopath go away of his own volition is one application of Gray Rock. One might say that Gray Rock is a way of breaking up with a psychopath by using the old, “It’s not you, it’s me.” excuse, except that you act it out instead of saying it and the psychopath comes to that conclusion on his own.
Another reason to use Gray Rock is to avoid becoming a target in the first place. If you find yourself in the company of one or more narcissistic personalities perhaps you work with them or they are members of your family it’s important to avoid triggering their ENVY. By using Gray Rock, you fade into the background. It’s possible they won’t even remember having met you. If you have already inadvertently attracted their attention and they have already begun to focus in on you, you can still use Gray Rock. Tell them you are boring. Describe a boring life. Talk about the most mundane household chores you accomplished that day in detail. Some people are naturally lacking in dramatic flair. Find those people and try to hang around them when the psychopath is nearby.
If you must continue a relationship with a psychopath, Gray Rock can serve you as well. Parents sharing joint custody with a psychopathic ex-spouse can use Gray Rock when the ex-spouse tries to trigger their emotions. I acknowledge that any threat to the well-being of our children is overwhelmingly anxiety provoking. Here is where Gray Rock can be applied selectively to draw attention away from what really matters to you. In general, show no emotion to the offending behaviors or words. The psychopath will try different tactics to see which ones get a reaction. With Selective Gray Rock, you choose to respond to the tactic which matters least to you. This will focus the psychopath’s attention on that issue. Remember, the psychopath has no values, so he doesn’t understand what is valuable to us unless we show him. Selective Gray Rock shows him a decoy. When protecting our children, we can take a lesson from nature: Bird parents who have fledglings are known to feign a broken wing when a predator is in the vicinity. They fake a vulnerability to detract the cat’s attention from their real vulnerability, their babies. In this example, Selective Gray Rock fades all emotions into the background except the ones you want the predator to see.
Why it works:
A psychopath is easily bored. He or she needs constant stimulation to ward off boredom. It isn’t the type of boredom that normal people experience; it’s more like the French word, ennui, which refers to an oppressive boredom or listlessness. Drama is a psychopath’s remedy for boredom. For drama, they need an audience and some players. Once the drama begins, they feel complete and alive again. They are empowered when pulling the strings that elicit our emotions. Any kind of emotions will do, as long as it is a response to their actions.
A psychopath is an addict. He is addicted to power. His power is acquired by gaining access to our emotions. He is keenly aware of this and needs to constantly test to make sure we are still under his control. He needs to know that we are still eager to do his bidding, make him happy and avoid his wrath. He needs to create drama so he can experience the power of manipulating our emotions. As with any addiction, it is exhilarating to the psychopath when he gets his supply of emotional responses. The more times he experiences a reward for his dramatic behavior, the more addicted he becomes. Conversely, when the reward stops coming, he becomes agitated. He experiences oppressive boredom and he will counter it by creating more drama. If we stay the course and show no emotions, the psychopath will eventually decide that his toy is broken. It doesn’t squirt emotions when he squeezes it anymore! Most likely, he will slither away to find a new toy.
The Gray Rock technique does come with a caveat: psychopaths are dangerous people, if you are in a relationship with one that has already decided to kill you, it will be difficult to change his mind. He may already be poisoning you or sabotaging your vehicle. Take all necessary precautions. In this case, Gray Rock can only hope to buy time until you can make your escape.
How it works:
Psychopaths are attracted to shiny, pretty things that move fast and to bright lights. These things, signal excitement and relieve the psychopath’s ever-present ennui. Your emotional responses are his food of choice, but they aren’t the only things he wants.
He envies everything pretty, shiny and sparkly that you have and he wants whatever you value. You must hide anything that he will notice and envy. If you happen to be very good looking, you need to change that during this time. Use makeup to add bags under your eyes. If you aren’t married to the psychopath, any money or assets he covets should disappear “in a bad investment decision” (consult with your attorney on this). Your shiny sports car has to go, get a beater. If you have a sparkling reputation, anticipate that he will or has already begun to slander you; therefore, don’t allow yourself to be put into any compromising position or pushed into erratic behavior. The reason he wants to take these things from you, is not necessarily because he wants them for himself, it’s because he wants to see the emotions on your face when you lose them. He wants the power trip associated with being the one who took them from you. By preemptively removing these things from his vision and not reacting with emotion at the losses, you continue to train him with the idea that you are the most boring person on earth, someone he would never want to be.
Origin of Gray Rock:
In 2009, I left my psychopathic partner after 25 years, but I didn’t understand what was wrong with him. I sat in a sushi bar, lost in confusion, when a tall, athletic man introduced himself. To my own surprise, I instinctively poured out my story to him. This complete stranger listened to my story and then he explained to me that I was dealing with a malignant narcissist. He advised me, “Be boring.” He told me that his girlfriend would come home each night, begin drinking and become abusive. They were both professionals who traveled in the same professional circles. He knew that she would stalk him if he broke up with her and he didn’t want to risk the slander and drama which could leak out and damage his professional reputation.
His solution was to be so boring that she would simply leave him. He declined to go out on evenings and weekends. He showed no emotional reaction about anything, no interest in anything and responded with no drama. When she asked if he wanted to go out for dinner, his reply was, “I don’t know.” After a few months of no drama, she simply moved out.
Why is it called Gray Rock?
I chose the words Gray Rock because I needed an object for us to channel when we are in an emotionally charged situation. You don’t just practice Gray Rock, you BECOME a Gray Rock. There are gray rocks and pebbles everywhere you go, but you never notice them. None of them attract your attention. You don’t remember any specific rock you saw today because they blend with the scenery. That is the type of boring that you want to channel when you are dealing with a psychopath. Your boring persona will camouflage you and the psychopath won’t even notice you were there. The stranger in the sushi bar showed great insight when he advised me to “be boring.” He struck at the heart of the psychopath’s motivation: to avoid boredom.
In nature, there are many plants and creatures that show us how to survive in a world of predators. Among others, birds feign injury to protect their babies and mice play dead until the cat loses interest. Both of these tactics can be useful and they can be channeled when applicable. Yet, it’s difficult to calculate each and every move that a psychopath will make and to determine the best course of action each time. Instead of trying to out-think him, channel the gray rock. This simple, humble object in nature has all the wisdom it needs to avoid being noticed, it’s boring.
Copyright © 2012 Skylar
Sunny- Did you complain to the manager? A friend had this and the manager and other tenants were helpful.
yes, the person who was the mgr would not talk “unless the immediate housing coordinator was right there ” so i was not allowed to have confidentiality.
the housing coordinator was mad cause her boss heard about her lack of concern , and many other things.
she got the tenants against me , many of them lying (they believed one sided story ) I ended up leaving. I sued him won, the facility heard about it put in complaint on my nursing license, SIX months after i left, to avoid being sued, and smeared me , telling the BON I was mentally incompetant, (the mgt at facility and BON are all mormons ) and railraoded me, ordered psych evals, who did not agree with them but they have power and I lost my license due to this my career of 25 years, my income, my house, car, and reputation. (the housing coordinator was fired as I brought in her criminal record,didnt matter , the mission creeps , stick together, and money is top priority.
Yes, Sunny, this situation with your apt. manager sounds typical, and like I’ve had with the only three rentals in my city. In two of them, I was being harassed by neighbor. In one of those, that neighbor harassed just about everybody — even the manager, w hen she was new at her job. She told me that! I complained several times, she made promises to kick him out that she did not follow through on, and finally told me/us that we would need to “work it out between the two of us,” and if I complained again, she would kick both of us out. That guy was definitely a sociopath.
In my present situation, the manager is probably a sociopath. Trouble is, though, that in our state — an all but two of the other states in the USA — there is a “no-cause eviction” law. So we dare not say ANYTHING to her that she could take offense at. She takes offense, it seems, to pretty much EVERYTHING anyone says to her. A sick, sickening woman. Fortunately, our tenants’ unions are getting close to passing a “just-cause eviction”law, like Seattle has, and a lot of California cities also have.
synergy I have a male neighbor who violates the policy of no alcohol in the clubhouse but only on Saturday. The manager will not do anything. A female neighbor is loud for attention.
Just a thought to pmjmommy, from a retired piano teacher. pjm wrote, ” I would never let a stranger with my son alone.” Yes, this is what it’s come to. Traditionally, since time immemorial, music teachers were in their studios with a student, without chaperones, or parents. My teaching as like that for 18 years. By the way — did you know that when I was teaching piano, my insurance company asked me if I hit the kids????!!! My insurance rate would have gone up, if I did!!! I have taught adults who experienced being hit by a piano teacher — one that still taught in my area, because they named her. The damage done by such people is immeasurable. BUT In my 19th year of teacher piano, after 18 harmonious years of admiration and love in both directions between my self, the child or adult student, and the parent/s of the student, things suddenly changed. One child threatened me. She was five years old, and very “adult,” in ways I did not think were good. I was encouraging her to try a new and small technique, and she said ominously, “If you make me do that….I’ll tell them that you YOU….” I immediately referred her parents to a different teacher. I also encountered a boy whose mother’s boyfriend was pinching the boy’s cheek –HARD — he told me. I called Childresn’s Services, and they said if there was no visible mark there was nothing they could do. They wanted me to report the incident anyway, but I refused, because I was terrified of his mother. So I first called his school counselor, who was wonderful. She said that she regularly had lunch one-n-one with every child in the school, and that she would “keep an eye” on the little boy. So I decided, to protect my personal safety, to refer his mother to another teacher. She SCREAMED at me on the phone. See why I was afraid of her wrath? There were a lot of sign about the way she treated her son, that had already led me to believe that she was dangerous, not only to him, but to me. I also got foster child, whose foster mother told me upfront that the girl had been sexually abused, which is why the girl was in foster care…This was, in my view, not my business, and a breech in confidentiality regarding the little girl. But I was scared. on and on…Maybe 5 strange cases in one year. So I decided that it was not safe anymore, for there to be a meaningful relationship between a music teacher and a child. I retired and went back to [gag] office work. The time is not right….will it ever be again?
PS A lot of the time, my teaching was at a church, or a music store studio. Sometimes out of my home. Two of the incidents I mentioned were at a church, or a music store, so teaching out of my home was not the issue.
I use this often in various situations.
I still do.
I love it! Very helpful. Thank you.
Dear author and readers alike,
I thoroughly enjoyed the read and the commentary. Despite the adorable stereotypes you have for people like us, you offered some very valuable insights. That being said, this does give a lot to work with in regards to formulating a counter method against your “Gray rock” method. After all, how do you swallow a stone elephant? Oh, you normies. We are the way we are because you’re nothing more than social commodities (network g for new opportunitues) and physical commodities (sex).
… And the real kicker? You continue to uphold and benefit from such a system. Perhaps some of you could benefit from reading “A report on the banality of evil”. Thanks for the read. It was … Enlightening.
Lovefraud readers – this comment is allowed to stand for educational purposes, to better understand the mindset we are dealing with. Of course, the best thing to do is ignore this person.
Sounds like a bad solution and I am trying to decide if it is dangerous and stupid or just stupid. By making yourself look “worthless” you would only enrage a narcissist once they find out what you are doing. Intentionally putting yourself in a weak position (for weeks/months?) can have a lot more bad consequences on your life and self-esteem than it would be effective in achieving the goal. Unless we are talking about low-functioning, most would instantly sniff the fraud. Wouldn’t a sudden change from “normal” to grey-rock only encourage them more as they try to figure out what caused the sudden change in personality?
In my experience the grey rock technique has worked to keep me safer. If used successfully the spath doesn’t recognize that the victim is using grey rock. Grey rock isn’t putting oneself in a weak position – it’s letting the spath think that the victim is not a desirable target for his exploitation. Giving the spath a plausible ‘reason’ for the change helps prevent the spath trying to figure out a reason for the change. My ex psychopath didn’t care too much what motivated my choices of behavior – he only cared about getting whatever he wanted at the time. He did move on to other victims (sadly for them) when I no longer provided what he wanted. Grey rock is a principle that works best when it’s tailored for the specific situation and the specific exploiter.
I’ll be using this with narcissistic neighbors while i take care of some medical stuff.
Still doing this while dealing with medical stuff.
I sometimes use this.
I use this at times.