I’ve gotten a lot of dm’s asking “what in the living hell is narcissistic personality disorder” so here’s a thread explaining what it is and what causes it and how you can support ppl with NPD.

Narcissistic personality disorder is a disorder that causes a pattern of self-centered, arrogant thinking and behavior, a lack of empathy, excessive need for admiration, disregard for one’s own safety, and troubled feelings of shame and vulnerability

Symptoms of narcissism include:
- an exaggerated sense of self-importance
- a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration
- Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it
- Exaggerate achievements and talents

- Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate
- Believe they are superior and can only associate with equally special people
- Monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior

- Expect special favors and unquestioning compliance with their expectations
- Take advantage of others to get what they want
- Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others
- Be envious of others and believe others envy them

- Behave in an arrogant or haughty manner, coming across as conceited, boastful and pretentious
- Insist on having the best of everything — for instance, the best car or office
- secret feelings of shame or vulnerability

NPD is often comorbid with disorders such as: substance abuse disorder, borderline personality disorder, PTSD, depression, anxiety, antisocial personality disorder and schizophrenia.

Because of its high comorbidity rate it’s hard to discern symptoms of NPD from symptoms of trauma, as NPD is a trauma response

What causes NPD is often debated, but the current running theory is that a child was not viewed with their correct worth up and out through adolescence and now has a distorted self image. This includes excessive admiration and outright child neglect that went unnoticed.

The brain becomes so fearful of being neglected or viewed incorrectly by those around them, that it creates a false image of superiority to protect itself from being abused again. This is why narcissists may freak out when you try to fight with them, our mask +

Is being challenged and it resurfaces childhood trauma. So we resort to being mean and snarky and arrogant so no one can see our true feelings. in turn, many people with NPD have a hard time making friends or finding partners, as one may see everyone as a threat who will +

Distort and manipulate our view on reality the same way our parents did. this become a cycle and cycles become ones entire personality, hence the name narcissistic personality disorder.

Dispelling common myths about NPD:

1: people with NPD love themselves too much

no, we have a distorted view on reality and to cope with feelings of self hatred we SAY we love ourselves. In fact, a lot of narcissists think extremely poorly of themself.

2: narcissism is just another form of abuse

Ppl with NPD are more likely to be abused or hurt themself than to cause someone else real harm. The term “narcissistic abuse” was created to demonize ppl with NPD, since abusers CHOOSE to be abusive and no one chooses to have NPD

3: narcissists lack empathy

narcissists lack the ability to return emotional empathy, and that’s not necessarily a horrible thing. We recognize what empathy is, we simply cannot return the favor. And some narcissists DO feel empathy.

4: Narcissists believe they are superior to others

grandiose narcissists do, but not every narcissist is the same. There’s communal, paranoid, antisocial, avoidant, quiet, vulnerable narcissists so on and so forth.

5: all narcissists are the same

as with my previous point, narcissism exists on a spectrum. There’s so many types of NPD that it was briefly considered to be changed to “narcissistic personality spectrum disorder”

6: narcissists can’t fall in love

I guess I don’t have a significant other anymore. Actually, narcissists can fall in love, it’s just (like myself) a lot of us prefer to NOT date neurotypicals, nothing personal it’s just nt’s have a long history of being fucking assholes

7: ”X celebrity” is a narcissist

armchair diagnosis creates a precedent for what a disorder looks like and most people who diagnose those they are not treating with NPD are not doing so in genuine hopes that the person will receive medical attention

8: narcissists are more likely to be bigoted/conservative

No, it’s a case by case basis and most actual narcissists who took the inventory for NPI said they felt their narcissism did not affect their political standing.

9: narcissists are just bad people

just because you met one self centered dick does not mean everyone with a medical condition is going to emulate the same characteristics

If you go online and google narcissistic personality disorder you’ll find articles like “how to deal with a narcissist“ “how to train a narcissist to become self aware” and “10 ways to control someone with NPD” and this is a harmful way of thinking, for many reasons, among the +

First being “why do we feel the need to train someone with a disorder? Would you ask the same of an autistic person or someone who’s depressed?” Because when was the last time you saw a legitimate article entitled “how to drive a depressed person insane”

Narcissism is so stigmatized that most people with NPD have to hide their diagnosis from family and friends otherwise they could lose, get this, their disability benefits, and if they lose that, they can lose marriage equality. people with NPD are actively under attack from +

People with no knowledge on the disorder. This repetitive cycle of saying people with a disorder are inherently evil has caused people like me EXTREME stress in our day to day lives. On your account, you should be creating a safe space for people who suffer from NPD.