One of the reasons so many victims of narcissistic abuse do not realize they are victims until much later or even after the relationship ends is due to a lack of knowledge of what constitutes abuse and what exactly a narcissist is. I had never heard of narcissistic personality disorder or narcissistic abuse and believed that a narcissist was just someone who looked in the mirror a lot and took too many selfies. This in addition to the fact that I didn’t have bruises or broken bones to show for my pain left me feeling isolated and alone, unable as I was to figure out what was going on.