Narcissistic Personality Disorder

[lahnnabell]

Does anyone have an experience with this disorder? Know anyone who is in therapy because of it? Or anyone who is in a relationship with a pathological narcissist?

After some research, I recently realized my father must have this disorder. I base this assumption on my childhood and teenaged experiences of emotional abuse by him.

It's a scary, complicated disorder and most of the time you only find out about it when you're in the thick of the relationship.

[vashti]

I have suspected many times that my mother has this, although she's not been diagnosed. Obviously she is unaware she has a problem. She is a very difficult woman to be around, but her effect on my psyche has greatly diminished over the years, and at this point, is pretty much non-existent. Now when she behaves like a nutcase, we realize that it's really HER, and not us (her children).

[ecojeanne]

i think my dad did, not sure tho, mom was never allowed work or even be around other people without him and he was very controlling and still is to an extent. but he has eased up very much so in the last 5 years and is actually a much more of a pleasure to spend time with, i practically see him everyday now. he was always controlling but never to our detriment, it was always to protect us but to an extreme and we never really grew up making choices for ourselves until about 5 years ago, he was always able to get us to do what he wanted, my two brothers included. but things are great now, i guess some grow out of it?

[Gigabitch]

Both of my parents are wonky, but the best example of NPD I've ever seen was my ex-mother-in-law.

A bit of advice: understand that you can't connect to this person and emotionally detach. He won't even notice, I promise. He lives in a fantasy land anyway.