The next phase is where the SCAP reaches its peak. When the target has been so successfully framed that if they speak up, they’ll appear unstable or paranoid, they stay quiet. The silence completes the operation. This phase is called anticipatory discrediting, and it works by training you into self-silence. You start believing that telling the truth will make you look obsessive, vindictive, or crazy.
It’s that inner voice inside you that says, “Don’t burn bridges,” “Don’t cause drama,” or “Don’t badmouth the other parent. Take the high road.” The message underneath is always the same: be quiet. With a narcissist, they don’t even need to orchestrate this phase; by this point, you’re doing it for them. They’ve already planted the idea that you’re dramatic, unstable, or obsessed. Your fear of proving them right keeps you silent, but your silence protects them, not you.
The way out is what I call “doubling down.” You double down on the truth. You double down on what happened. Smaller isn’t safer here; you expand instead of shrinking. You tell the truth without apology, without diluting it, and without self-editing because silence protects the lie. The antidote to suppression is simple: truth in plain sight.
So here’s the formula: name what happened and state that it wasn’t okay. That’s it. You just name reality and reject its normalization. “This happened, and it wasn’t okay.” “This happened to me, and it’s not okay.” You don’t have to prove or defend it; you just have to double down on the truth.
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