Most people have experienced a conversation that starts as an exchange of ideas but slowly becomes centered on one person. Instead of feeling heard, the other participant is left waiting for an opportunity to speak before the discussion circles back to someone else's experiences.
Mental health professionals often describe this pattern as conversational narcissism. Although…
She was not planning to quit drinking. The decision towards sobriety came sideways, through a new medication prescribed for her obsessive-compulsive disorder that did not mix well with alcohol. So she stopped. And then she waited for her social life to collapse.
It did not. That was the first surprise.
Two years into her sobriety…

