What you may not know is that you were growing up with a mother that had a narcissistic personality disorder. The effects of being raised by a narcissistic mother can be catastrophic, with you having lasting traumatic effects. When you try to explain your situation to other people, they just don't get it. You start to doubt yourself. Once you start doubting yourself, your narcissistic mother is gaining control, making you unsure of your judgment. She remembers incidents differently to how you remember them and denies other incidents even happened, also known as gaslighting. Around and around go your feelings and emotions, till you think you must truly be crazy. The mental abuse by narcissistic mothers that destroys children's development, adult children of narcissistic mothers are often plagued with so much guilt and shame they often feel duty-bound and become a puppet of the abuser, keeping whatever happens a family secret. Not many people will know what it is like to grow up in a home that is devoid of love and emotion.