Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental health disorder characterized by an exaggerated sense of self importance: in other words, a narcissist firmly believes that it is all about them and your feelings don’t count. Living with a narcissist can be challenging and dysfunctional relationships are very common when one of the partners is suffering from narcissistic personality disorder.
So if this is an accurate description of your current relationship, or you suspect someone you know might have strong narcissistic traits in their personality, what is the treatment for narcissistic personality disorder?
While a narcissist might come across as arrogant and supremely self important, they are usually afflicted by a low self esteem that leaves them overly sensitive to criticism and ridicule, and this can cause problems with interpersonal relationships.
There is currently no known cure for narcissism, but a typical treatment for narcissistic personality disorder will involve different forms of psychotherapy.
What Therapies are Available for Narcissistic Personality Disorder?
Psychotherapy is designed to help the patient improve their self esteem and develop more realistic expectations of the people around them as well as relate to other people in a more positive way. It can also help to alleviate any associated symptoms of depression and anxiety.
There are three types of psychotherapy commonly used to treat patients suffering from narcissistic personality disorder: cognitive behavioral therapy, family therapy, and group therapy.
Cognitive Therapy
- Helps the patient to replace negative self beliefs with more positive ones.
Family Therapy
- Explores conflict and problems within the family relationships.
Group Therapy
- Useful for teaching narcissists how to relate better to other people.
Medication is not normally prescribed for narcissistic personality disorder unless the patient is suffering from other related mental health problems such as depression or anxiety attacks.
Psychotherapy is designed to be a long term solution that will improve relationship patterns and help the patient to understand why they behave in such a fashion, but in the short term, psychotherapy for the treatment of narcissistic personality disorder will hopefully address problems of low self esteem and any self destructive tendencies.
There are also various self-help remedies that can help with the treatment of narcissistic personality disorder. Education can help the patient to better understand their condition and the risk factors involved. Learning relaxation skills can also help the patient to better manage stress.
Unfortunately, many patients diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder also suffer from a variety of other mental health conditions, including substance abuse, as a way of coping with their symptoms. In severe cases of narcissistic personality disorder, patients might end up being hospitalized if they show signs of extremely self destructive behavior or are not responding well to out-patient treatment.
However, many narcissists are reluctant to seek treatment for their problems as an underlying and deep seated fear of inadequacy usually means they do not trust the therapeutic processes involved in such a course of action.
Is Recovery From Narcissism Possible?
Recovery from narcissistic disorder is possible, but it will take time and commitment, therefore it is important to stick to your treatment plan and always attend scheduled psychotherapy sessions.
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More Information About This Topic
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001930/
- http://psychcentral.com/disorders/sx36t.htm
- http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/narcissistic-personality-disorder/DS00652/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs
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Hello. I believe i have encountered a person who suffers from NPD. My wife and i have separated back in 2008. I was sad of the event but knowing you can’t make someone love you I accepted.
I didn’t really notice through my relationship the clues that were screaming out. I only realized after the separation the way that my wife acted and the way she portrayed herself to every one.
Now I am not putting her down or anything like that because I am still very fond of her and she is the mother of my children. Like I said I started to notice the way she really was after leaving the relationship. She would always look for attention and tell everybody how great she is. At first I thought “good i am happy for her that she is happy” but them the arrogance came in to play.
We went to court to set up child support etc.. And she turned on me by saying I was a horrible father, I did things that never happened etc.. I spoke to her about this and she denied she had said these things but they were on paper. Also every time i tried to take my children to the doctors, dentist, etc or even do something for my children she would get VERY upset and say I don’t deserve to do these things and she would say that it was her job not a unloving dad like me?
This has even gotten so bad that all of her friends have noticed. She called me when her new boyfriend broke it off with her and we had a talk. I mentioned to her that many people have noticed her behavior and she should seek help. Not to say she is crazy or anything like that but there is something going on that everybody doesn’t understand. She started telling me how perfect she was and how everybody likes her. I told her to please go see someone for the sake of you and your children. Now she has directed anger towards in very mean ways, name calling as well as punishing them for silly things.
This is causing so much problems in her children’s way of looking at her. The children tell me their mother is full of her self and they resent her for this. This has caused troubles in the our family law case.
I have lost so much because of her and I am sad she is doing this. I don’t know what happened to her. Probably something when she was younger. All i know is she is out of control.
Please give me your insights. Thank you.