Learning to see and accept what happened to you.
This can be hard. One of the best defenses we have is denial. If we can deny that something was as bad as it was then we don’t have to deal with it. Unfortunately, this isn’t helpful in the longterm. At some point we must face it.
Understanding how to not pass down the legacy of narcissism.
If we aren’t careful we can pass down some of the things we learned to our children. Recovering from being raised this way means we become conscious of our own narcissistic traits, and the ways we are overcompensating to our children for what we didn’t get.
Grieving the mother you never had.
We must do this so that we have the emotional space to be present and strong in our current relationships. It makes us better parents because we have tended to the part of us that didn’t get what we needed.
Becoming the person you were meant to be.
This is the exciting process of seeing who you are apart from your upbringing. What really matters to you. What do you really want from your life. What makes you light up, and what do you love about who you are.
“The WIEBGE acronym stands for “Will I Ever Be Good Enough?”, and signifies certification in Dr. Karyl McBride’s five-step recovery model for treating adult children of narcissistic parents.”