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Old Sep 24, 2016, 11:23 AM
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defyinggravity65 defyinggravity65 is offline
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Member Since: Nov 2015
Location: USA
Posts: 224
Quote:
Originally Posted by MiddayNap View Post
I am not in the business of diagnosing others, but if I were to take a guess I would say the low self-esteem which goes hand-in-hand with social anxiety has likely caused somewhat narcissistic behaviors to emerge as sort of a defense mechanism. Then again, having features similar to a certain disorder doesn't necessarily mean you are suffering from said disorder and the fact that you are so self-aware leads me to believe you most likely aren't exhibiting narcissistic personality disorder. From my understanding, narcissists wouldn't dare admit their faults to anyone-especially not themselves. Do you perhaps think your worries are simply caused by your OCD? I recall reading those with OCD-some, not all of course-tend to fret over whether or not they have serious diseases or disorders and the like. Whatever the cause may be, it is good you've taken the time to assess yourself, identified where improvement is needed, and desire to work towards a solution. The fact that you are so worried about this indicates you are not a horrible person. A horrible person would not care whether they hurt others or whether they were too self-centered. The obvious solution is to work on your self-esteem, as doing so would erase the reason for these coping mechanisms. Unfortunately, I am not really certain how one does that. I always feel better when I learn new things, so perhaps you could go that route.
Thank you so much. I honestly appreciate that a lot. You made a good point about the OCD, and I am a major hypochondriac about different physical and psychological conditions. I do definitely think I am pretty narcissistic deep down, but my OCD definitely makes it worse because it makes me feel like I am ONLY narcissistic. For example, when I read various attributes of covert narcissism, I feel as though I can say "yes, I can relate to that" to every single thing, but all the times I did not exhibit those behaviors are forgotten in the midst of a bad OCD cycle.
OCD definitely does not help this process, because now I'm even worrying that posting on here is just all a ploy for attention and I feel evil deep down.
But alot of covert narcissism rings true for me in my heart of hearts, OCD aside, and I agree that it would be good to raise my self-esteem. But I don't want to over inflate my ego even more.
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Dx: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ("Pure O" Type), Social Anxiety
Rx: Lorazepam PRN