Symptoms of post-traumatic stress can be common after narcissistic abuse, especially in children who experience this type of abuse from their parents. Traumatic events, like the psychological effects a person deals with in an abusive relationship, lead to an overactive fight-or-flight response. This response, which is designed to act as an alert system, gets activated anytime a memory of the relationship or aspects of the relationship arise. Because of this, people feel on edge and as if there is something to be scared of around every corner.