As you grew further into the relationship with the sociopath, you wouldn’t have noticed that you were being isolated from other people. At least, not at first. The sociopath sells this sense of intimacy, and ‘just the two of you’ to you, as if he is doing you a huge favour.

You will feel as you are being swept off of your feet, that you have met the love of your life, and that this is the romance of a  lifetime. At first, you won’t notice how the rest of your life is being abandoned at the wayside. After all, not only are you flattered, you also feel that you have met your soul mate.

You imagine, that once the initial intimacy dies down, as it always does, once the flame is turned down, that you will have the sociopath as part of your life, and he will fit into your wider network of friends and activities. Or so you think.

Dating a sociopath is a full time occupation, leaving little space in your head for anything else at all. It is deliberate ploy on his part. He does this deliberately, to ensure that you have nothing else in your life, as isolating you, gives absolute control.

The sociopath takes up your space. He takes up your:

• Physical space by being with you all of the time
• Mental space, by constantly making demands, asking questions, talking, bombarding, looking for attention.

Further into the relationship, without other people, and all of the usual things that you enjoyed in your life, you can feel like the sociopath is the only one who understands you, or even that the sociopath is the only one left in your life.  The sociopath controls your thoughts, your actions, and your activities.  Without realising it, in a short space of time, your entire world is focused on the sociopath. You have no time for anything or anybody else. You might even be under the false illusion that you are happy!! 🙂

The sociopath will intrude and control every part of your life.  Leaving the sociopath is difficult. Whilst you know deep down that you deserve to be treated better than this. You have also been manipulated, controlled.

Isolation

By continual  bombardment, you are left with little time for other activities. Friends, get fed up of hearing your stories, and cannot really relate to what is happening to you. Friends can feel abandoned, as you didn’t have time to catch up with them. They are left with the false impression that you are more into your partner, than them.

On top of this, if the relationship ends, if you try to tell your tales of the ‘craziness’, the sociopath will capitalise on this, and relay YOU out to be the crazy one.

You are left at the end of the relationship, wondering:

• What happened to YOU
• What happened to YOUR LIFE
• What happened to YOUR FRIENDS

You struggle with this, and the sociopath will again capitalise on this, and tell you that nobody likes you. You have no friends. Nobody wants you.

You might even go back to the sociopath, thinking that you are worthless, and nobody else wants you. Your self esteem is left at an all time low. You have been abused, used, and now not only is there evidence that there is little left of your life, you also feel worthless, and the sociopath will delight in telling you that you are.

You might struggle at this time because:

• You feel worthless
• The sociopath mirrors this, and tells you that you are
• You feel that there is evidence of this too, after all, you have changed, and where is the life that you had before?

The truth is very different from the reality that you are being fed by the sociopath, and by the illusion of the what you think that is now your life. It is, just like everything the sociopath gave to you, an illusion. The truth is:

• You still are that person who you were before
• Nobody can take YOU away, the can do it temporarily,  but not permanently
• You are not only the person that you were before, you are BETTER than that person!! You really are, because you are wiser

You might think that you have nothing left. That the sociopath has taken everything, and you are left alone and feeling worthless. Don’t go back, or listen to further sociopath tricks, to manipulate and control you further. Try to remember:

Take this time, to work on you. For the first time in a long time, you have time to yourself. Real genuine friends will still be there. Just pick up the phone and call. Those who are not, were not really true friends, those who are your real friends, will be happy to hear from you. Likely they have missed you, as much as you have missed them. Only the time that you were with the sociopath you were not YOU. You were a clone of who the sociopath moulded you into.

• Call old friends
• Do things that you used to do, things that you used to love, before the sociopath came into your life. By doing this, you will reconnect back to the old parts of yourself
• Make goals – even if they are small. Achieving even small goals, will help with your self esteem
• Write your thoughts down
• Read as much as you can, to understand what you have been through

And most importantly, know that there is nothing wrong with you. You are not alone. I have been through this too, as have many others who read and post on this site. And worldwide there are millions of us.

Isolation, confusion, sense of abandonment are only temporary. It is not your life for the rest of your life (no matter if the sociopath tells you it is). Concentrate and focus on you, and on people that you loved in your life. Relish your freedom. Enjoy what had been taken away from you.

Your world can grow bigger, if you allow it to. To do this, you need to let go fully of the sociopath, and love yourself!! 🙂

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