The word “narcissism” is used a lot these days. It’s used colloquially to describe everyone from selfie-loving gym rats to designer brand snobs. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that narcissism is a real medical term, used to describe a personality disorder. One that affects 1 out of every 200 Americans.
Narcissism is about much more than expensive taste and obsession with physical fitness. Dating one is often isolating, confusing, heart-crushing, and even downright terrifying. Today, we’re going to explore the reality of dating a narcissist, and we’ll wrap up with tips on moving on and moving forward.
Defining Narcissism
Though all of us possess some narcissistic traits, only 0.5-percent of the American public have a narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Demographically, 75-percent of all narcissists are men, many of whom seek out careers in the medical field or in the military.
Screening a person for NPD involves measuring their individual traits against the official list of 9 criteria. The 9 official criteria include a grandiose sense of self-importance, a preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited power, a belief that they’re special, a need for excessive admiration, interpersonally exploitative behavior, a lack of empathy, envy, and frequent demonstrations of arrogant behavior or attitudes. An NPD diagnosis requires only 5 of the 9 above traits to be apparent.
Now that we have the official diagnosis sorted, it’s time we look at some of the subtle warning signs that may indicate your significant other has NPD.