Narcissism & Substance Abuse

NotMyUsualUserName wrote:

dove wrote:The thing that always fascinated me most about my narc. parents was their capacity for hypocrisy. She was into prescription pills and he was a full blown alcoholic that had a well stocked liquor cabinet in the house and two refrigerators full of pabst blue ribbon in the garage. Yet, they always were loud about looking down on drug addicts, and just about everyone else they deemed to be "trashy". Since narcs are so image conscious, I don't think they would tend to get deeply involved in illicit drugs, but my experience has shown that they will go for the legal stuff with gusto.

I agree, I may be the same way.

I do look down on those who are drug addicts. But only those that do nothing with their life.
Those that are educated, have good jobs, or are studying something respectable, I can tolerate because drugs are not their everything.

Were they successful people? (Not as parents, or as personalities, but were they successful in terms of society).

Well, I don't know how you judge "success". My parents are second cousins (which I find disgusting). He is Portuguese but was born in the US, and met my mother when he went back to the Azores islands to see the homeland and visit family. My father worked a good blue collar job until he retired with a decent pension. My mother worked off and on until he retired and she started a catering business. She is just luck that she found a fool to be her ticket out of the Azores islands.
I mean, I guess my parents would be considered stable middle class.

Hey guys.

With regards to the question of Narc's and substance abuse - which came first? I think with each individual case you need to look at the merit of the situation and the persons past behaviour and behaviour affecting incidences.

Having worked in the field of mental health and currently dating a Narc of sorts (he has some of the criteria associated with NPD) *frustration* I found that substance abuse might be a leading cause in his case particularly.

In his earlier youth he and his friends used drugs recreationally (alcohol, and mostly cannabis, with various other drugs excluding heroin/crack cocaine. He however did not use any drugs during the course of our relationship aside from alcohol and occasional cannabis use.

When we started dating I could assess some behaviour abnormalities such as mild traces of OCD, but not to such an extent that it affected his functioning. He did like to talk about himself though! It just worked on my nerves

A year into our relationship, which has always been relatively balanced and happy he started to smoke weed occasionally in conjunction with anabolic steroids. From there on I found that his behaviour changed dramatically, becoming more self-centred, selfish and hints of increased grandiosity. Everything became about him, and I gradually became less important. When he got tired of the gymming post steroid use, he turned his focus to poker! *cringe*

In that sense I suspect drug abuse had a major influence in his personality changes. So it might be that some Narc's are the way they are because of childhood related trauma or drug-use induced. That’s my theory!

NPD and OCD/OCPD have some similar apparent traits (selfishness due to inability to see/feel from another person's perspective), but they are caused by abnormal activities in different areas of the brain.

The more I read, the more I recognize NS behaviors as strongly linked to dopamine deficiency. This explains the connection to addictions (not so much opiates as stimulants like cocaine and meth, although alcohol can also increase dopamine levels) for Cluster Bs.

For OC traits, it's a case of serotonin deficiency. Depressants tend to ease the anxieties associated with these disorders (Cluster C).

I believe BPD and some HPD traits are a combination of dopamine and serotonin deficiencies.