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Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) : How to recognize a narcissist

I didn't want to post the whole page here. Many addicts seem to have very narcissistic traits and this article is very informative on how to recognise them.

winnie12

I have read that before and have wondered if many addicts arent also narcissist or have bordeline personalities. I've also read an alternate theory that true narcisist dont typically become addicts because they have such a grandious idea of themselves that they dont need the chemicals to make them feel good about themselves or their lives.
But I do agree that they share some very similar traits in their treatment of other people and drugs/alchohol can trigger genetic psychosis in people that has been dormant. If you are genetically prone to mental illness the drugs can awaken those traits.

cassandra2

Good article. I like the part where Satan shows up at church.

I am inclined to think that a drug addict has more of a Sociopath type personality. Only because some drug addicts can live among us and we never know that they are abusing drugs or alcohol. I also think that their emotions more closely resemble a sociopath.

Just my opinion......

marle

I think that just like in the general society we run the gamut of emotional disorders, so it is in the addict world. I do know that dual diagnosis is very common with addicts. I am sure that whatever disorder that one reads about we can all find a bit of ourselves there. Addiction tends to distort the negative parts of our personalities so that a character trait that is controlled for the most part when we are stable can become very distorted when we are in our addiction. I know for myself that when I was in the worst part of my addiction to my daughter, that I could have probably received a diagnosis of something because of my crazy behavior. Hugs, Marle

BayAreaPhoenix

My friend, 19 years in recovery (NA), says that the "selfishness" they talk about in NA is really about narcissistic traits. His opinion is that a lot, or most, addicts do have narcissistic traits - i.e. selfish traits, so that is why so much of the narcissism hits home for some of us. He does distinguish between traits and full-on NPD.

For me, I believe my XAH is definitely an N - I believe he is what they call a low-level N, some cases a medium. I think it's because of those traits that he has some of the issues he does which led to the addiction.

For me, when my therapist brought up the narcissism, it explained where the addict behavior left off. I think, as said above, that while there are many common denominators that we all deal with in addiction, we are dealing with a cross-section of society and therefore are going to have many different added issues in addition to addiction.