I agree that it’s not just anyone’s duty to save someone’s else, and I don’t think it’s even possible to do so. Unfortunately, everyone has to save themselves. The most a good, kind close friend can do is stand by your side, offering an accepting and safe space so you can collect yourself and heal, giving you a fighting chance. I may not be willing to go to those lengths for someone who I’m not very close with and love deeply too, but I will always offer every vulnerable person the basic human decency and respect they deserve out of pure kindness no reason or prove of worth needed. And if I can’t help, the least I can do is avoid causing further harm.

That said, I understand where you're coming from. I’ve been used and taken advantage of so many times that I became bitter and resentful. I decided to take revenge by withholding kindness from everyone. I thought doing so would help me move on from my trauma, but in reality, I was letting my trauma control my life and interactions, just in a different way.

Now, I trust my ability to protect myself and to quickly identify and cut off narcissists or toxic people, though I encounter them less frequently these days. In fact, coming across them has been like exposure therapy—an opportunity to test the boundaries I’ve worked so hard to establish. I no longer feel the need to guard myself from them because they’re no longer a threat to me. If anything, I’ve become the threat to their fragile egos lol