A healing path from your darkness: Narcissistic Behavior and its Effects on Personality
Know someone who thinks they’re better than everyone else, but flies off the handle when they’re criticized? Those with narcissistic personality disorders behave in a self-centered, arrogant manner, lack empathy for others, and possess an excessive need for admiration. Some people describe people with NPD as cocky, manipulative, selfish, patronizing, and demanding. The narcissist’s thinking and behavior extend to every area of his or her life: work, friendships, relationships with family, and romantic relationships. It is easier to identify narcissistic traits in others. However, it is challenging to trace them in our personalities.
Narcissistic behavior is a mental disorder that often results in imbalanced life, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy and care for others. It can disturb all areas of your life, including physical and mental health. For a narcissistic person, it is nearly impossible to face rejection, lack of attention, and admiration, because they crave it more than anything else.
When the desired attention is not received, a narcissist can go nuts in anger and obsession, leading him to go without food and water and inflict self-pain. The problem is the insatiable desire for external approval. There is an imbalance in the solar plexus chakra of a person with a narcissistic personality. Our Solar Plexus Chakra symbolizes our personal power. As well as self-esteem, self-worth, confidence, will, and freedom from shame, it is associated with ego, self-worth, and self-worth.
Narcissistic personality disorder patients are extremely resistant to changing their behavior, even when it’s causing them harm. There is a tendency for them to blame others for their mistakes. In addition, they regard even the slightest criticism, disagreement, or perceived slight as personal attacks, and react badly to them.
Symptoms and Causes of Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Let’s trace down and discuss the major symptoms and causes of narcissistic personality disorder. But, remember, the severity of symptoms can vary from person to person.
- An elevated sense of self-importance
- Sense of entitlement and wish to be admired all the times
- Desired to be known as superior to others
- An exaggerated sense of achievements and talents
- Overly indulged in fantasies about success, fame, power, brilliance, and the perfect mate
- Superiority complex
- Manipulative conversations
- Arrogant behavior and haughty manners
- An insistence on getting the best
- Frequently demeans, intimidates, bullies, or belittles others
Causes
- Environment – imbalanced parent-child relationship ( a relationship filled with excessive admiration or criticism – poorly aligned to the child’s experiences), emotional abuse
- Genetics – inherited traits
- Neurobiology – the association between brain-behavior thinking
- Children can develop this pathological self-structure when their parents are not warm, supportive, and excessively idealizing during their childhood.
- Children who suffer from overwhelming shame, loss, or deprivation during childhood tend to develop narcissistic personalities.
Troubles of having narcissistic behavior
- Impatience and anger
- Interpersonal problems
- Contemptible reaction
- Feeling depressed, moody, and vulnerable
- Hidden feelings of shame, insecurity, and humiliation
Narcissistic Personality Disorder Effects
Now you know the reasons and troubles attached to narcissistic behavior, but do you know how it affects your mental, emotional, and spiritual health? It can expose your life and relationships to many troubles and irreparable loss if left unchecked and untreated.
Being a narcissist, you may hate asking for support or accepting help in treatment because you, in your imagination, are superior to others, and seeking help in any way is not acceptable for you. Denying or hiding your narcissistic personality disorder negatively affects your life and leaves deep scars on the life of your loved ones.
Here is how it affects you physically, mentally & emotionally, and spiritually.
Physical Effects
Narcissism negatively affects your physical health. Your narcissism may drive you to experience
- Suicidal tendency and ideation
- Increased risk of using drugs or alcohol
- Aggressive behavior
- Impatience and rudeness
Mental & Emotional Effects
- Low or poor self-esteem
- Increased depression & anxiety
- Hypersensitivity toward criticism, rejection, or insult
- Poor interpersonal skills
- A strong desire to seek power and uphold dominance over others, especially your significant other
- Inability to maintain or initiate relationships
- Lack of mental stability that results in poor performance at school or work
- Withdrawal from those you love or who love you
- Demeaning attitude towards others that results in a lack of meaningful relationships
Spiritual Effects
- Detachment from self and spirituality
- Stripped self-worth
- Traumatized mind, cognitive dissonance, and vague objectivity
- Imbalances on your lower chakras
Can a Narcissistic Person Change?
Social media, television, and modern society have created a negative perception of every narcissistic individual on the planet. According to these stereotypes, narcissists are cruel and evil-spirited individuals who enjoy inflicting harm on others. These notions also dictate that such individuals are incapable of changing their ways and are destined to be alone forever.
However, the real story discovered by psychologists tells an entirely different tale. First of all, narcissistic people are just like regular people. They do have problems expressing themselves or showing empathy, but it does not mean that they enjoy harming or belittling others. With that being said, such individuals need help and support to get through life and experience all that it offers.
The truth is, everyone is capable of changing and transforming into a better version of themselves. While changing your entire personality is no easy feat, it can be done by consulting a psychologist, sharing your history and problems, and formulating a plan that can help you get back on track.
According to a study conducted in 2019, narcissistic traits tend to decrease over time as you age. However, this does not mean that you have to wait around to be old and gray before you can accept who you are. The first step towards everyday life is acknowledging that the planet is full of people with real-life problems too.
Empathizing can be very difficult for a narcissistic person, but acknowledging the fact that other people are going through similar experiences can instill at least a basic level of respect for other humans, which is a massive step for any person suffering from this disorder.
Discover your narcissistic wounds
If you want to know whether you or your partner has some narcissistic wounding, notice whether you or your partner experience some of these or all of these traits:
- Compliments craving – however, when you receive compliments, the effect diminishes quickly
- Self-conscious feelings – you feel others are watching you, or you desire to attract everyone’s gaze toward you
- Consistent feelings of self-doubts and self-loathing
- Repulsing those who need attention
- You feel drawn toward those who are distant yet provide a profound emotional or sexual support
- You feel dissatisfied or uncomfortable when you do not receive your desired attention from others
- Seeking validation from authority figures yet you feel empty
- Being ordinary is unacceptable. You can not set for anything less than the best
- Feedback makes you apprehensive and rude toward others
How to heal the narcissistic wounds
After identifying your or your partner’s narcissistic wounds, the next step is to map out the process of healing. Once you know the root cause of your issue, it helps you address what is missing and how to fix it. Do not wait for any miracle to get out of narcissistic personality disorder. You have to strive for healing.
It is not going to happen overnight. Taking this route requires patience, deliberation, and labor. A gentle, caring, and understanding therapist will help you get back on track and accept your shortcomings. With the help of an expert in conjunction with holistic healing, you can re-parent your childish desires and needs and accept the disappointments, failures, and rejections that come with accepting that nobody can fill your void.
Healing narcissism is a spiritual and psychological practice that demands patience, skill, honesty, kind feedback, empathy, and fearless self-inventory that assist you in your journey.
With focused attention, you can start noticing the difference that it makes in your life. You become more creative and happy in your skin. You start focusing on giving importance to others’ needs and desires than always thinking about yourself. You start feeling that your life is exciting and that you can live a peaceful and happy life without digital devices.
You no longer feel angry when people disapprove of your ideas or even your personality. You may feel a bit bruised, but you get back to yourself quickly because you are motivated to learn, develop, and grow. Your connections and relationships with others start improving, and everyone starts trusting you for your reliability.
You start believing that your sexual attraction makes you lovable. Instead, you feel ok with being ordinary and focusing on improving your overall personality rather than mere sexual attraction, wealth, or power to keep you in others’ good books.
You feel happy in others’ happiness and start appreciating your present rather than living in the past or fantasizing about the future. Brick after brick, you rebuild a strong sense of self than before. Because when you learn to defy narcissistic behavior, it develops deep compassion in you to be safe, healthier, seen, and celebrated.
Soulful Mentoring and Energy Healing Sessions
At Luna Healing Wellness Studio, Michelle, a Reiki Master Therapist and An Intuitive Life Coach with a Psychology and Holistic Ayurvedic Medicine background helps you connect with your spiritual journey to realize who you really are. Through her soulful mentoring and healing sessions, you will feel motivated to delve deep into your soul and recognize who you truly are as you start living well-attuned to your soul essence.
She helps you explore your conditioning ego to identify the root causes of your narcissism and the person you have become. Her healing sessions aim at discovering what has made you the way you are today and how to break those shackles of old patterns that no longer serve you. She steers you in the direction of discovering your wounds and learning to accept and love some unloved aspects of your personality.
Her sessions are unique and bespoke for you as an individual to explore your life, and present situation and steer you towards living a soul-aligned life instead of living in the dark realms of narcissism.
“Let’s disconnect from a narcissistic frame of mind to reconnect with your soul.”
