Your siblings have been with you since early childhood and share your past family history. No one else has access to the same memories. Because they experienced your formative years with you, they know how you think and behave more intimately than anyone else. In healthy families, sibling relationships can be special and lead to lifelong adult friendships. However, people who grew up with a narcissistic sibling have a very different experience โ from a young age, they are subjected to emotional and sometimes physical abuse.
Take a moment to think back on growing up with your sibling. Here are a few questions you can ask to determine whether or not they showed narcissistic tendencies:.
Most narcissists maintain control with manipulative, emotional mind games. They might also use triangulation, where they use a third person to take their side and pressure or control you. If you grew up with a narcissistic sibling, you likely felt you were always walking on eggshells. Either you stood up for yourself and fought with them all the time, or you stayed quiet as a means of self-preservation.
Having to live with this type of abuse can leave psychological scars that continue to haunt you into adulthood. Narcissists thrive on bullying. Their methods can be openly aggressive, like physical threats and harsh criticism. If someone else heard the way they talked to you, they would be horrified. As a child, you might have accepted this treatment because you grew up around it.
In order to keep control, narcissists will turn everything back on you. You need to toughen up. For some people, growing up with a narcissistic sibling may start a pattern of trauma bonding.
