Quote:
Originally Posted by ennie
"Fool me once and shame on you. Fool me twice and shame on me."
I have been fooled by a manipulative person in my life more than once. I know she has the tendency to exaggerate, omit information, and distort the story.
I have gotten suspicious of her motives over time, and can now distinguish her emails and texts as something insincere.
However, when it comes to phone or face-to-face conversation, I know in my head that she is deceptive yet I get swayed by the emotions because she acts so desperately, cries, and pressures me to help her (repeating the same question over and over). As much as I have been avoiding her, in an event she does approach me unexpectedly, how do I become an objective listener? How do I separate my mind from my heart and examine carefully what part of her story may not be legitimate?
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Separate yourself completely from the conversation. if you know how this person is, and how you typically have handled it and are easily swayed by the crocodile tears, then walk away. Pressures cannot exist if you do not open the door to the conversation or close it right when it starts. Be up front and honest if you possibly can be. truthfully perhaps that's what this person needs to hear that their actions of the past in manipulating others has caused this door to be shut.