Well, one thing I'd like to point out, because I unfortunately have experience with this: When you are hurting and looking for love, it tends to shine like a beacon for people who don't have the best intentions in mind going into a relationship. When I went into my last relationship, I didn't see myself as particularly vulnerable, but I think it's because I'm used to my past history of childhood abuse, and see nothing of letting some of it show on the surface. I also thought nothing of talking about how all I want is to make a home of my own because I never really had that growing up. That's a lot of vulnerability showing on the surface all at once, and someone whose main goal in relationships is manipulation is going to have a field day with that. I was like a narcissist's Disneyland. (Though I'm not saying it was all my fault, I'm just saying I didn't make the best decisions for myself.)

Because this relationship was with a man I'd been friends with for a very long time, and had gotten to know (so I thought), when we were both going through a very intense emotional time in our lives back in 2005, I trusted him very quickly. Cut to the beginning of March, and I'm leaving a very short-lived, long distance relationship (which had several false starts over the last two years) shell-shocked because I'd been the victim of narcissistic abuse. And the man I thought I knew never existed. It is what it is, and I'm mostly healed (mostly), and I don't say that to scare you. I'm just saying it to emphasize how important it is to heal that hurt before you try to go out there again, lest you end up getting even more hurt and traumatized on top of it. Because, believe me, I would just as soon give up dating than go through all that again.