How To Identify A Narcopath And How To Deal With Narcopathy

Who is a Narcopath?

Narcopath, also known as a narcissist sociopath, is a person suffering from a mental health condition wherein they reflect sadistic, evil, and manipulative tendencies. Narcissism or narcopathy, the medical term for the disorder, is a state of mind in which a person becomes extremely self-involved, ignoring the surroundings.

A narcopath suffers from both personality disorders of Cluster-B and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of level DSM-5. Narcissistic Personality Disorder patients experience a lack of empathy and admiration in early adulthood. At times, such patients show extreme behaviours, from being harmless to causing injury or even death [1].

What are the Symptoms of Narcissism?

It is challenging to recognize narcissism symptoms. However, it is advisable to look out for the following signs:

• Emotional Blackmail: Narcopaths use this abusive technique to make you feel guilty every time. They aim to weaken you emotionally so that you work according to them.
• Try to isolate: Narcopaths tend to influence you so that you are cut off from your friends and relatives. They do so to keep you away from positive people and to make you listen to them only.
• Triangulation: A narcissist’s mind keeps plotting conspiracies to make two or more people go against each other. They may even make imaginary love triangles to make people fight and spoil relations.
• Threats and violence: Narcopaths are famous for forcefully achieving what they want. They may abuse you physically or go to any extent to fulfil their needs.

How to Identify a Narcopath?

Narcopath or Narcissistic Sociopath is a personality disorder. Though it is hard to identify this psychological syndrome, certain traits reflected by a narcissist include narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), sociopathy, sadistic personality disorder, and paranoia. These specific characteristics are described as under:

Narcissistic Personality Disorder(NPD):

NPD is a state of mind in which a person is obsessed with self-importance all the time. They seek attention from others now and then. Such people do not value others’ feelings and cannot handle criticism. They often exhibit a sense of entitlement [2].

An NPD person may display the following traits:

• They may have a strong desire for admiration.
• They show a lack of empathy.
• They hold a sense of self-importance or grandiosity.
• They possess arrogant and haughty behaviour.
• They are either envious of others or think that others are jealous of them.
• They consider themselves superior to all and wish to be friends with only high-profile people.

Antisocial Personality Disorder(APD):

APD or sociopathy is a mental health condition in which a person considers themselves always as right. They don’t value the feelings and emotions of others. Such people provoke the hostility of others and are manipulative.

People who have Antisocial Personality disorder(APD) show signs at the early age of 15 years. APD patients show no guilt or remorse for their behaviour. They may have a drug addiction or may lie impulsively.

Some general symptoms of Antisocial Personality Disorder include:

• They tend to lie constantly or adopt deceit to exploit others.
• They may show non-acceptance of right or wrong.
• They may be cynical or show disrespect for others.
• They may have an intention to manipulate others for personal interests.
• They may be arrogant or feel superior to others.
• They may show criminal behaviour and have recurring problems with the law.
• They maintain poor and abusive relationships.
• They exhibit a lack of empathy and remorse for harming others.
• They are highly irresponsible and repeatedly fail to fulfil obligations.  

Aggression:

This behaviour is yet another trait of a narcopath. A narcopath may hold feelings of rage or antipathy. They may show hostile or violent conduct and may be ready to attack or confront anytime.

Sadism:

Narcopaths may be cruel with the intent of getting sexual pleasure. They may be forceful and violent, causing harm to another person.

Paranoia:

A narcopath may accumulate unreasonable false beliefs in their mind, such as other people dislike and criticize them.

How to Deal with Narcopathy?

Narcopathy is a life-long condition. Staying with such a psychopath can impact your entire life. Narcopaths are incredibly manipulative and may convince you that they are good persons inside out. So, the easiest solution is to accept what they say and walk away. 
However, if they are abusive, especially physically, seek a friend’s or relative’s help and leave that place. Do not waste time arguing with them. Following are some ways to handle a narcissistic patient:

Before anything find out expert who can help you immediately. GET HELP. 

Accept that they are difficult to handle:

Dealing with a sociopath or a narcopath is a challenging task. Once they start behaving abnormally, you should either leave the place or agree to what they say. In case of abusiveness, you must seek someone’s help and go away.

Try to ignore what they say:

Once you identify that you are in the company of a narcopath, avoid them. Keep away from any kind of arguments with the person or talk to them as little as possible. In short, avoid relationships with a narcopath.

Do not prompt or challenge them:

This mental disorder makes a person believe that they are always right. Therefore, one should not indulge in any discussions or arguments with such persons. Once aggressive, they may insult you or dominate the situation. So, it is better to have only healthy conversations and avoid debate discussions.

What is the Treatment for Narcopathy?

Narcopaths are dominating and self-indulging people. They believe that they are perfectly fine and have no mental disorder. However, these patients can seek medical attention if their friends or family members can convince them with kind words to undergo a mental health assessment disguised as a general checkup.

In general, narcopathy treatment has a shallow success rate. Talk therapy is a good solution but is not very effective because sociopaths are big liars and manipulators. They do not accept that they are suffering from a disorder.

However, Cluster-B personality disorder patients show fewer narcopathy symptoms, and one can cure them with proper medical visits and therapies.

Final Words

Narcopathy or narcissism is a complex mental condition to handle. Such individuals often have a violent streak to their personalities. Once you identify that you are in the company of a narcopath, self-preservation should be your priority.

While therapy can control narcissistic behaviour, there is no standard cure for it. Therefore, lifelong personality management is the solution.

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References

[1]	A. Ross and S. Thomas, “The health benefits of yoga and exercise: a review of comparison studies,” J. Altern. Complement. Med., vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 3–12, 2010.[1] Moni, “Everything You Should Know About Narcopaths,” With Love, 09-Mar-2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.withlovemoni.com/everything-you-should-know-about-narcopaths/. [Accessed: 03-Aug-2022].
[2]	S. Akhtar, “Narcissistic personality disorder. Descriptive features and differential diagnosis,” Psychiatr. Clin. North Am., vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 505–529, 1989.
[3]	T. A. Widiger, “Antisocial personality disorder,” Hosp. Community Psychiatry, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 6–8, 1992.