Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)

Symptoms and Signs of Narcissistic Personality Disorder

There are many different pointers that a person suffers from NPD. However, they don’t need to check all the boxes to get diagnosed. Here are the most widely recognized signs of narcissistic personality disorder: 

Constant need for admiration and envy

People with narcissistic personality disorder constantly need to be admired or envied for something. As they brag about their false, superior life, they tend to put themselves in the position of the hard worker, the achiever, the maker. They always need to have the last word and their stories always have to be the most extravagant ones. 

Another extreme that comes up at this point is playing the victim. When something doesn’t go according to their plan, the last resort is to play the sufferer and get people’s attention in this way. 

They fantasize about power, success, intelligence, beauty

A person with narcissistic personality disorder has a tremendous fantasy about their own power and self-image. NPDs create all the circumstances according to their imagination. 

They see themselves in a superior life full of richness, success, power and beauty, and nothing seems to bring them down. This can go to such an extent that they consider other people’s lives as worthless.

Belittles, demeans and intimidates others

A person with narcissistic personality disorder does everything possible and necessary to put themselves in a good spotlight, even when they have to put others down to do so. Because of their lack of empathy, they are not touched by other people being hurt. On the contrary, it gives them even more energy because they feed from the pain of others. That’s why they are also called Emotional Vampires.

Longing for special treatment

People with narcissistic personality disorder expect to be treated as kings and gods. They see themselves as superior humans and hence need to receive special treatment. They want others to bow down before them and to be prepared to serve them whenever they are present – and narcissists do make sure they’re heard and seen! 

They want to claim everything for themselves

When other people own or achieve something in their life, people with narcissistic personality disorder either belittle everything and make these people feel inferior and the achievement worthless, or they claim that the achievement happened only because of them. 

They believe that they have sacrificed something for others to achieve their goals and be happy with their lives. 

Lack of empathy

Another typical sign that a person has narcissistic personality disorder is their lack of empathy. Whenever other people are in pain, suffer, have lost somebody and so on, the narcissist doesn’t feel anything for these people that suffer. In fact, it’s the opposite: the more other people suffer, the better the person with narcissistic personality disorder feels. This can be seen as an energy supply for them. They are not able to feel what other people feel, also no happiness, fear or love.

Belief to be better and superior to other people

The belief that they are better and superior humans makes them want to deal mainly with people of the same ‘league’. They tend to surround themselves either with other narcissists or with people who are rich, have a special title, are politicians, doctors and so on. They also classify this group of people as superior and worthy of surrounding themselves with, while they blame all the others to rest on the success of these hard workers.  

Inability to listen to others

A person with narcissistic personality disorder always needs to have the last word and to be right. The opinion of other people is diminished with big gestures, and their own words are presented in an exaggerated and glorifying way. When something comes up that is uncomfortable for the NPD, they either bring the talking point back to their fantasies, or they completely avoid the whole conversation. 

They use their children as an extension of themselves

A parent with narcissistic personality disorder doesn’t see their child as an individual, but only as a reflection of themselves. When the child has some good achievements in school or at sports or elsewhere, the narcissistic parent brags about themselves through the child’s success. In their mind, the child could’ve never achieved that without them and without their support or ‘love’. 

Notorious liars

People with narcissistic personality disorder tend to be tremendous liars. They come up with stories to either justify, praise, or put themselves in the position of a hero. When somebody doesn’t believe it or dares to question the story, the narcissist will go into some self-defense and do everything so that they aren’t caught lying. That means to run down other people and start spreading bad gossip about them, too. Many times, they build up a whole net of lies that can be compared to a spider web. One lie leads to the other, and, in the end, there is a huge story in their head that is nothing but just their own imagination.

Compare their child to others

Instead of loving their children, parents with narcissistic personality disorder use them as an extension of themselves and a source of admiration from others. An NPD parent often compares their child to the children of others, always finding something better in the others. 

Then, they start blaming their own child for the person they are, resulting in the loss of self-esteem and wanting to be perfect. 

Problems with the law

A person with narcissistic personality disorder usually tends to be in contact with the law frequently. Either they sue others or they are being sued, but they usually have the illusion that the law is always on their side. They tend to steal things and do illegal business, also dragging other people into trouble. When being confronted, they always blame the others and never admit that they might be wrong. 

There’s typically a difference between male and female NPDs. Male NPDs are usually more openly in trouble with the law, while female NPDs can be more covert and manipulative. Due to this, they often manage to avoid criminal charges and legal consequences.