Narcissists live among us, and you have to interact with them whether or not you like it. The trick is making sure you don't fall for their toxic manipulative tendencies and become one of their many victims.

These individuals are pathologically selfish, and they will never genuinely care about another human being.

They are also relentless in their pursuit of people to manipulate. Their deceit knows no bounds, and you better watch out when you are around them or you'll become one of their many sad victims.

In fact, I'll do you one better by giving you a heads up on some manipulative behaviors you can expect off these ruthless people. Here are seven ways to know that a narcissist is trying to manipulate you.

1. Because They Are Narcissists

As long as you know you are dealing with a narcissist, accept that there will be endless attempts to manipulate you into doing things for them. It's who they are, and it's an irredeemable trait they possess. So, always know this and you will have an easy time seeing through their cunning manipulative attempts.

2. Downplaying Your Accomplishments

At first, narcissists are very charming and they can heap praises on you and make you so grateful to have met them. But then their true colors emerge. As soon as you like them, they flip the script and start criticizing and downplaying your accomplishments. That makes you feel the need to work harder to impress and win their admiration once more.

3. Triangulation

When a narcissist does you wrong and wants to manipulate you into getting off their backs, they will try to pitch you against a third party. This divides your attention and makes you forget about them and get angry at someone else. They also like it when you are going at each other with the other person, but are secretly supporting them as they stand by to enjoy the drama.

4. Playing The Victim

If you wonder how a situation suddenly became all about them and how much they have suffered, then it's time to wake up and realize what's going on. This is called the victim act. They want pity, and as you know, with pity comes offers to help. A narcissist plays the victim so you can offer to help and in the process do their bidding.

5. Guilting You

Whatever a narcissist does wrong is your fault. Even when they are in the wrong, they will blame you without apologies. They do this so you can try to prove it's not your fault by doing something they might approve of.

For instance, a narcissist who wants to know about your whereabouts for some ulterior motives might accuse you of being secretive and shady so you end up giving them such information.

6. Aggression And Intimidation

Narcissists love to instill fear in their victims. The goal is usually to make such people act out of fear of harm and in the process do what they want. For instance, a narcissistic boss can threaten not to let you see your family over the holidays to make you agree to an unfavorable employment condition that benefits them.

7. Focusing Entirely On Themselves

A narcissist will always talk about themselves and their accomplishments. Any other topic you introduce will be changed into something that concerns them alone. They do this as a manipulative trick to get you to compliment them and praise them. Narcissists feed off the admiration they get from others, even though it is based on lies they tell about who they truly are.