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You Are Not Crazy
You’re exhausted from over-functioning. Always managing the chaos. Always trying to keep the peace.
You feel alone. Misunderstood. Like no one sees the full story—except you.
You question yourself constantly. You wonder if you’re the problem.
You’re not.
This podcast helps you understand emotional abuse, coercive control, narcissistic relationships, and trauma bonds—so you can stop doubting yourself and start trusting what you already know.
I’m Jessica Knight, emotional abuse coach and survivor. I help people make sense of confusing, destabilizing relationship dynamics—including gaslighting, manipulation, intermittent reinforcement, and post-separation abuse.
Here, you’ll learn to recognize the patterns of narcissistic abuse, understand the psychology of trauma bonding, and rebuild your sense of clarity, stability, and self-trust.
This podcast is especially for you if you are:
• Leaving or recovering from an emotionally abusive relationship
• Navigating divorce or post-separation coercive control
• Trying to co-parent with a high-conflict or manipulative partner
• Questioning your reality after gaslighting
• Rebuilding yourself after psychological abuse
You are not crazy. Your nervous system adapted to survive something real.
This is your space to understand what happened, reclaim your truth, and heal—on your terms.
🖤 Learn more and find resources at www.emotionalabusecoach.com
You Are Not Crazy
When Mental Illness Becomes an Excuse for Abuse
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
This month’s Patreon episode dives into a theme that kept surfacing in your questions: When does mental illness explain behavior… and when does it become an excuse?
Before answering your submissions, I break down what we actually mean when we talk about pathological abuse — repeated patterns rooted in personality structure, not just “a bad fight” or poor communication. We explore coercive control, gaslighting, intermittent reinforcement, blame shifting, and the power imbalance that defines these dynamics.
I also clarify the differences (and overlap) between borderline traits, narcissistic traits, and antisocial traits — and why the traits matter more than the label.
Some of the questions I answer:
• Was any of it real, or was I being used the entire time?
• How do I tell the difference between borderline traits and sociopathy?
• Why did they escalate when I got stronger?
• When does mental illness stop being an explanation and start being an excuse?
This is the Instagram video I reference: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DP8CTXVDQ11/?hl=en
This is the podcast I mentioned: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1916632/episodes/10257007
This episode was originally recorded for my Patreon community, where I answer listener-submitted questions in a more direct, unfiltered way. I’m sharing it publicly because the themes felt too important to keep behind a paywall.
*Please Note: there is a long intro that explains my services. If you do not want to listen, just fast-forward 5 mins past. This intro will be changed in future recordings to be shorter. I am not paid to record this podcast and it is a free offering. Offering my work is the only way I can sustain the podcast*
Join the Patreon: https://patreon.com/Youarenotcrazy
*New Course*: Unhooked: Map the Cycle of Abuse in your Relationship
Website: Emotional Abuse Coach and high-conflictdivorcecoaching.com
Instagram: @emotionalabusecoach
Email: jessica@jessicaknightcoaching.com
{Substack} Blog About Recovering from Abuse
{E-Book} How to Break Up with a Narcissist
{Course} Identify Signs of Abuse and Begin to Heal
{Free Resource} Canned Responses for Engaging with an Abusive Partner
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