Table of contents:
- What is Narcissistic Personality Disorder
- Symptoms and characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder
- Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Causes
- Narcissistic personality disorder: treatment
- Psychotherapy
- Medication
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Does it always become a topic of conversation? Do you feel entitled to certain rights or privileges? Do you despise others? These are classic signs of a narcissistic personality disorder. Do you know someone who feels that he is always right and others are not? Are you arrogant, lacking in empathy and think you are very important? That person may have this disorder. In this Psychology-Online article, we will talk about Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Causes and Treatment.
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- Symptoms and characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder
- Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Causes
- Narcissistic personality disorder: treatment
What is Narcissistic Personality Disorder
The disorder narcissistic personality is a disorder that affects approximately 1% of the population with higher prevalence in men than women. It is characterized by exaggerated arrogance, lack of empathy, and a great need for admiration. The main marker of the narcissistic personality is grandiosity. They care about power, prestige, vanity and believe that they deserve special treatment.
Narcissistic personality disorder should not be confused with a person with high self-esteem. A person with high self-esteem may be humble, while the narcissist may not. They are selfish, presumptuous and ignore the feelings and needs of others. In addition, the disorder affects the life of the person in a negative way. In general, the person may be unhappy with his life and disappointed when others do not admire him or do not give him the special treatment or attention he needs. All life areas are affected (work, personal, social…), but the person is not able to realize that their behaviors negatively affect their relationships. People are not comfortable with a narcissistic person and they will feel dissatisfied with their work, social life, etc.
Symptoms and characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder
Some of the symptoms and characteristics of a narcissistic personality are:
- Preoccupation with fantasies, successes…
- Belief of great importance, they only feel understood and relate to people they consider to have a high status.
- They need and demand continued admiration.
- Exaggeration of your achievements and abilities.
- Feeling entitled or privileged.
- Being jealous of others and an inordinate belief that others are envious of you.
- Think and speak most of the time on yourself.
- Set unrealistic goals.
- Expectations that others will do you special favors.
- Believe that no one can question your motives and demands.
- Taking advantage of others to get what they want without regrets.
- Arrogance, haughtiness.
- Easily rejected and hurt.
- Lust for power.
- Respond to criticism with shame, indignation and humiliation.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Causes
There is no single definite cause of narcissistic personality disorder, but researchers agree that there are environmental and genetic factors that play a role in the development of the disorder.
Among some of the genetic factors, it has been seen that people with a narcissistic personality have less gray matter in the left insula, the part of the brain related to empathy, emotional regulation, compassion and cognitive functioning.
Many of the narcissistic personality traits take shape in the normal development of the person. Researchers believe that the onset of the disorder can occur when there is a conflict in interpersonal development. Some examples of contextual factors that can alter phases of “normal” development include:
- Learn manipulative behaviors from parents or friends.
- Being overly praised for appropriate behaviors and overly criticized for inappropriate behaviors.
- Suffering abuse in childhood.
- Inconsistent parental care.
- Being very spoiled by parents, friends, family…
- Being overly admired without realistic feedback.
- Receive lots of compliments from parents or others about your physical appearance or abilities.
Narcissistic personality disorder: treatment
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is one of the keys to approach the treatment of the narcissistic personality. It is often used to help the person to relate to other people in a more adaptive way and to gain a greater understanding of their own and others' emotions.
If a person has a narcissistic personality, you probably haven't heard of a diagnosis. Studies have shown that they do not usually receive treatment and if they do, progress is slow, because it is based on personality traits, which have been formed over the years. Therefore, it takes years of psychotherapy to make changes. The changes are aimed at accepting responsibility for their actions and learning more appropriate ways of relating. This includes:
- Accept and maintain relationships with colleagues and family.
- Tolerate criticism and failures.
- Understand and regulate feelings.
- Minimize the desire to achieve unrealistic goals.
Initially, it was thought that group therapy was not appropriate because group therapy requires empathy, patience, and the ability to relate and "connect" with others, something that the person with narcissistic personality disorder has deficits in. However, studies have shown that long-term group therapy can benefit them by providing a safe context where they can talk about their limits, receive and give feedback, and increase their awareness of themselves and their problems.
The cognitive behavioral therapy, specifically focused therapy schemes, he has given good results. It focuses on repairing narcissistic schemes and the coping strategies associated with them, confronting narcissistic cognitive styles (perfectionism…).
Medication
There is no specific treatment for this disorder, but sometimes these people may have depression or anxiety, and psychotropic drugs can be helpful. People with narcissistic personality can abuse drugs or alcohol, so treating addictive problems can be somewhat beneficial in this disorder.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Causes and Treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical Psychology.