If you grew up feeling more like a caregiver than a child, you may struggle with self-worth in adulthood. Parentification—when a child is forced into an adult role, often taking care of their parents or siblings—can leave deep emotional imprints that persist long after childhood. Instead of learning that you are valued simply for being, you may have internalised the belief that your worth is tied to how much you do for others.

Typically, narcissists follow a pattern of three stages in romantic relationships; love bombing, devaluation, and discarding. The length of each stage and each cycle will depend on the person and the particular relationship, and perhaps what is going on in their lives outside of the relationship as well, but generally, the pattern seems to fit.