Member-only story
If Someone Calls You a Narcissist, Does That Mean You Are?
Are we really qualified to diagnose each other?
I wrote a story about my journey toward healing since being estranged from my youngest daughter. A reader responded, insinuating that I am clueless, suggesting, “For your future self-development, I advise you look into Narcissistic personality disorder, but you probably won’t see the relevance.”
Wow. Nice.
After reading that, I spent a very painful 24 hours worrying that maybe I am a narcissist. I analyzed all the times I was selfish, arrogant, self-important and craved the approval of others. Maybe I have been making a fool of myself my whole life and didn’t even know it. Maybe even wondering if I am a narcissist is proof that I am!
I have to admit, I went a little crazy all because someone who doesn’t know me decided to diagnose me as a narcissist.
The label “narcissist” is thrown around a lot lately. On any given day you can find dozens of articles about living with a narcissist, surviving a narcissist, having a narcissistic parent, dating a narcissist, the trauma of being a victim of a narcissist. It seems like narcissism is as common as pennies in parking lots.
