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Recognizing these commonalities can help you understand and cope with people who have Narcissistic Personality Disorder, untreated alcoholism, or both. Drinking when you have been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder can be additionally dangerous. Drinking alcohol lowers inhibitions and can increase other narcissist behaviors including self-absorption, denial, illusions of grandeur, and destructiveness. These behaviors can lead to poor choices, including drinking and driving or excessive consumption, which can be fatal.
What personality disorder is associated with alcoholism?
The personality traits most often found to be related to excessive alcohol consumption are impulsivity/disinhibition and neuroticism/negative affectivity, whereas the significance of other personality characteristics such as extraversion/ sociability remains inconclusive (10, 28-29).
The occurrence of narcissistic personality disorder presents a high rate of comorbidity with other mental disorders. As detailed above, it is necessary to discuss the diagnosis with the patient as soon as possible. It is equally important to discuss the process of arriving at this conclusion, including clinical information gathered and observed behaviors.
Ways Narcissists and Alcoholics are Similar
The MCMI-IV is an inventory designed to help assess, diagnose, and provide treatment options for individuals with personality disorders. A personality disorder generally refers to unhealthy and rigid thinking, and behavior patterns that impair social, work, and school functioning. Most people with personality disorders do not realize they have a problem and blame others for the issues they create themselves. Outpatient rehab allows patients to recover from a co-occurring disorder while still attending to daily personal and professional responsibilities at home.
- For these reasons, alcoholic narcissists need dual diagnosis care.
- This includes but is not limited to genetics, neurobiology, trauma, abuse and parenting.
- Narcissists, by definition, have trouble accepting criticism and admitting when they’re wrong.
You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy. Similarly, people with dual diagnosis can manage their symptoms with appropriate treatment. Don’t try to protect narcissists or alcoholics from the consequences of their dysfunctional actions. Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles.
Living With an Alcoholic Narcissist
Individuals with a NPD feel they can only be understood by special people. They take advantage of others, especially to accomplish their own goals. These individuals have a lack of concern for the well-being of others or how others may be affected by their actions. A primary psychiatric interview focuses on symptoms; however, longitudinal narcissism and alcoholism assessments focusing on interpersonal relations are helpful to point toward a diagnosis of NPD. There are no FDA-approved medications for the treatment of NPD, but many patients may benefit from the treatment of symptoms, including anxiety, depression, mood lability, transient psychosis, and impulse control issues.
Regardless of the harm that they do, these people believe they are exempt from the moral code that everyone else follows, which is what makes them so dangerous. Most likely, you’ve encountered these types of people in news reports. One study suggested that around 35% of the prison population has APD, versus 0.2% to 3.3% of the general population.