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Confessions of a Recovering Narcissist

Confessions of a Recovering Narcissist

I admit it: I am a recovering narcissist.

Much of my life energy was spent in pursuit of what I wanted, what I needed, and what I thought was best. “Narcissism” is a term from psychopathology, but it’s essentially a fancy term for extreme selfishness.

I had good relationships with great women – strong, smart sexy females who thought I was a great guy… until I suddenly withdrew, or made plans without checking with them, or took off to chase success, or an intense experience, or another woman. As long as my needs were getting met in the relationship, I was pretty happy. But when I wasn’t, I began looking around for the next opportunity to fulfill my desires.

My partners were not weak or timid – they often confronted me about my choices and behavior. But my answer was typical of an intelligent narcissist: “If you want to be in relationship with me, you have to accept me as I am.”  And they did – until they couldn’t take it anymore. I felt completely justified in my world-view. If they couldn’t love me as I was, there were plenty of women who would.

Each time I made a mess of a personal (or business) relationship, I felt bad. I recognized the damage I was causing, and began to look inward for answers in therapy, and in my men’s group. I read books and articles about narcissism, and worked on changing my beliefs, my early programming, and my social conditioning. I knew I had to change. I wanted to learn to really love. To do this, I needed to learn how to be unselfish.

Selfishness appears in a wide spectrum, stretching from healthy self-care to moderate, socially acceptable personal goal achievement, to the extreme form of destructive narcissism – individuals who don’t care about the impact of their selfish behavior on others.

We are all selfish at times. When you focus on taking care of yourself, or making yourself comfortable, this is a healthy form of selfishness, as long as it’s not taken to an extreme. Healthy people learn how to set good boundaries, and pursue their own interests realistically. They develop personal esteem, mature principles, and can accomplish their goals. From a solid sense of self, they can form deep relationships with others.

Children are naturally selfish and self-focused, but they are expected to grow out of it. They learn that other people exist independently, and have their own feelings and needs that must be taken into account. This early awakening enables a child to “play well with others.” A healthy self-focused child can grow into a healthy adult, capable of being a loving parent, a compassionate community member, and a trustworthy citizen. If an individual can’t make that leap into the world of “others,” they become a narcissist.

To be successful in a relationship, you have to create a balance between self-oriented pursuits (such as self-care and self-development) with its opposite: care and respect for the interests and needs of the other.

We all want to be cared for. The trick is to learn to love as an activity you actively engage in, not a state you expect to be swept up into. In a mature relationship, each person takes full responsibility for the entire triumvirate: oneself, the other person, and the third entity: the relationship itself.

Relationships fail when partners focus too much on getting their own needs met, and not enough on the needs of the other. This results in arguments over whose needs are most important – which is almost always damaging.

Psychologically, it’s hard to focus on the other person’s needs when your own needs are screaming out to be cared for, but if you can, your relationship deepens, as does your capacity to love.

Because safety is a key to a making a relationship work, narcissism is destabilizing and damaging. Someone who acts selfishly without regard for the other is unpredictable. At any time, they may suddenly focus on getting their own needs met, and withdraw from the two-ness of the relationship.

Ultimately, in my journey from narcissism to healthy loving partnership, the woman I now love has been a teacher. She has shown that honoring the needs of a beloved other can bring with it a potent sense of satisfaction and well being, more so than any of the short-term fixes of following selfish impulses.

In her own words: “Men: Do you want your woman to really open to you? With her heart, mind and passionate body? The key to this reality is your honest, continuous care about her, and about your impact on her. You can tell when you have hurt her, or harmed the relationship with your selfish behavior. She will react quickly, look unhappy, and express disappointment. She withdraws when you try to relate to her, closing down, disconnecting – the opposite of how you want her to be with you. You don’t need to be perfect or relate perfectly, you just need to own that you caused damage when it happens, get curious, and repair it as quickly as possible. If you make your woman’s happiness your priority, she will fill up with her own Feminine Spirit and want to give you her best all the time. You’ll get your deepest needs fulfilled as a result.”

Ultimately, narcissism is a win-lose game. But I have learned when I consider self and other equally, when I put my partner’s needs alongside my own, we both win. And that is a sweet place to land.

 

11 Comments
  • Michael James
    Posted at 01:38h, 30 June Reply

    Thanks for being open and sharing !!

    I am to a person with NPD that is in recovery. I find it rare to find others such as us and enjoyed reading your site.

    • Lion Goodman
      Posted at 06:33h, 14 January Reply

      Thank you! We appreciate your appreciation, and we wish you all success in your continued recovery. It isn’t easy, and it is essential for healthy relationship. Best wishes.

  • Rachel Eryn
    Posted at 15:40h, 09 July Reply

    Lion this is so timely and potent. Such an elegant way of pulling together profound wisdom into easily accessible form that brings the depth of your personal and professional work into the world so in need of taking the next leap into learning how to relate.

    Deep blessings to you and Carista and much gratitude for bringing this work forward .

  • Jack Austin
    Posted at 23:30h, 10 July Reply

    Powerful article Lion! Really got me engaged in the Email and followed here.

    This is such a powerful and impactful topic, yet rarely understood or discussed in the society as s whole.

  • Linda Pinkney
    Posted at 17:26h, 26 November Reply

    Thank you Lion for this article. It particularly strikes a cord with me because of my relationship with my daughter, whom we have privately discusses and still I am working on trying to get into her “mindset”. These articles helps me to understand the scenario & how to work with it. Thank you once again.

  • J Adam A milgram
    Posted at 18:12h, 17 March Reply

    The true lover places the other’s needs above ones own.

  • Amanda
    Posted at 17:33h, 10 November Reply

    Thank you for sharing. May I ask, why you have labelled yourself as a ‘recovering narcissist,’ when your consciousness, or Soul, as many refer to it, chose to be a narcissist pre-incarnation? I am genuinely curious? Thank you in advance. Sending you Infinite Love and Rainbow Light ? ? XXX

    • Lion Goodman
      Posted at 01:58h, 11 November Reply

      Amanda: I share awareness of our spiritual nature, and our pre-incarnation intentions, which often include balancing or cleaning up karma from the past. “Recovering” just means that I have recognized a kind of addiction in my personality, and I’m working on changing it. This is all very embodied human personality stuff – it has little to do with the Soul’s intentions, except for its desire to learn our lessons so we can move on in a good way.

  • J. Adam Milgram
    Posted at 17:53h, 24 November Reply

    You speak to reciprocity, but what about beneficence? “Thou, not I.” You may have come a long way, but it appears you have a way to go on the path of love.

    Love and blessings,

    adam

    • Lion Goodman
      Posted at 21:30h, 24 November Reply

      “Thou, not I” is a beautiful state, as long as it doesn’t lead to forgetting self-care, or turn into codependency at the extreme. “Your needs are more important than mine.” There IS a state of pure Service, which comes from the space of No Self, a spiritual state in which you’re just doing God’s will with no ego involvement. Most people are not there – they are still in the world of ego and the ego of others. It’s a wonderful state to aim toward on the path of awakening, and for most people not practical.

      What I find most interesting, Adam, is that your statement comes from a place of judgement. “You have a way to go on the path of love.” Isn’t non-judgement one of the key qualities of enlightenment? If so, it appears that you have a way to go on the path… Mirthfully, Lion

      • Oriana Marici
        Posted at 21:04h, 12 April Reply

        Great article and I appreciate your mirth in this reply!

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