Before you know how to make a narcissist fear you, you should know that there’s a thin line between making a narcissist fear you, and making them hate you. If you read other articles somewhere else on the web before coming here, you might have seen advice such as “call them out on their misconduct in front of everyone”. But will such actions really make them fear you?
As I said in my previous posts, narcissists are extremely sensitive to criticism, when it’s done publicly. Such actions will not make them fear you. Instead, they will be furious. They will not only hate you, but they will probably look for a way to harm you in retaliation. This article doesn’t intend to teach you to make a narcissist fear you in a way that will make them hate you, simply because that would bring a lot of unnecessary drama in your life.
4 Ways to Make a Narcissist Fear You and Respect you
If you live with the narcissist or if you have been together for a long period of time, it’s important to understand that you can’t take just one action and make the narcissist fear you, and respect you. This is because they already perceive you in a certain way based on how you have been dealing since you met.
You should first try to understand how the narcissist perceives you. What is the first word that comes to mind when they hear your name? Is it “confident and strong”? Is it “weak”? Or, is it “dramatic”?
The word that comes to their mind reflects how you have positioned yourself in their mind over the course of time, based on how you have been dealing with them. You won’t make a narcissist fear you before you change how they see you. Below are 4 powerful way to make a narcissist fear you, and respect you.
1. Take unpredictable Actions
Can the narcissist guess how you will react when they take a certain action? Do they know you inside out? If your answer was yes, then it’s time to start surprising them. This does not mean that you should start being dramatic or take unnecessary actions. Instead, examine your behavior and try to understand what part of your behavior makes them disrespect you, and work on correcting it.
For example, if you always approach them while being timid, then you should learn to approach them with tremendous confidence. This does not mean that you should fake confidence; you should indeed learn how to be confident. When you are truly confident, it will reflect in how you walk, talk, and how you behave.
When a narcissist can’t guess your next move, they will be full of uncertainty when dealing with you; they will be afraid that the worst case scenario might happen if they mess with you. See: how to take control away from a narcissist.
2. Be mysterious
The less your actions are understood, the more a narcissist will be impressed with you. The reason why magicians impress people with their tricks is because people don’t understand how they do such magic tricks. But once the magician reveals how they do those tricks, people realize that there’s nothing special about them.
Whenever you do something remarkable, or anything that may trigger the narcissist’s thoughts, don’t give explanations on how and why you did it. Let them keep wondering how you managed to do it, and they will overestimate your power.
3. Make them dependent on you
When a narcissist is dependent on you in one way or another, they will not only respect you, but they will also be afraid to lose you. You may be thinking that making a narcissist depend on you is a difficult task but that’s not true. From the outside, narcissists appear to not care about anyone, but on the inside they are very needy, and their self-worth entirely depends on others.
In my article: how to make a narcissist emotionally dependent on you, I said that if you can make a narcissist feel important, less lonely, they will not only love you more, but they will also value you.
You may be wondering, what’s the point in making a narcissist happy. Well, if you live with a narcissist, the happier they are, the less abusive they will be, and mean to you. Most of the time, a narcissist’s abusive behavior is nothing but a result of the emotional turmoil and distress they are experiencing.
4. Do something exceptional
You don’t have to be a superhero to make a narcissist fear you and respect you, but you must do something that the narcissist didn’t manage to do.
In addition to doing something special, you must treat the narcissist nicely. Narcissists hate to see someone better than them but when they find that you have achieved something important and at the same time treat them nicely, they will surely respect you.
Final thoughts on how to make a narcissist fear you
If the narcissist realizes that you’re becoming powerful in one way or another, they may be worried that they will be in an inferior position. This may make them try to put you down and control you. If you see this happening, you shouldn’t be worried, just keep moving and the narcissist will be used to it. (See: how to outsmart a narcissist).