Advocate runs in wedding dress to raise awareness about narcissistic abuse

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Licensed clinical social worker Vanessa Reiser will be running across the state of Rhode Island in a wedding dress on Friday.

“The wedding dress is part of how the narcissists future fakes. So they will exploit this fantasy that many people have.” Reiser said.

Reiser is running to familiarize people with narcissistic abuse, which she said “is a more insidious form of domestic violence… it’s like death by a thousand cuts versus the acute trauma of, lets say, a physical assault.”

She experienced narcissistic abuse herself before becoming an advocate.

“I was in a relationship and even though I graduated from USC with my masters and was a therapist at the time, I had no idea what I was experiencing, we didn’t learn about this in graduate school.”

She points to these key warning signs to help identify it: love bombing, manipulation, gaslighting, devaluing, lying.

She hopes the thousands of sparkly steps she’ll take in the 27.23 miles across the Ocean State won’t be in vain.

Reiser said she’s working with local partners to start a new initiative this year to “sort of shine the light on the family court system which is deeply flawed. And so what we really need is to get people to become watchdogs in the family court system.”

She’s said she’s not just running here in Rhode Island. It’s a cause she’s advocating for across the aisle and across the country.

“The only thing that’s a barrier are just my knees, it’s like feet don’t fail me now,” Reiser said.