narcissistic personality disorder

Narcissistic Personality Disorder
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Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Introduction
Narcissistic personality disorder is responsible for the traits that make an individual to value himself/herself and lack empathy for others. Relationship problems are attributed to this disorder. The victims expect other people to offer special treatment to them, failure to which they confidence and self-esteem are lowered. Its causes include unbalanced parental relationship and poor connection between the brain, behavior, and thinking. The treatment of narcissistic disorder involves the use of psychotherapy that includes talking to the victims on how to manage relationships with others and understanding their emotions and what makes them despise others. The paper seeks to discuss in depth the causes, symptoms, risk factors, complications, and treatment of narcissistic personality disorder.
As mentioned in the introduction narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder that makes someone to only value himself or herself. Also it leads to a high sense of admiration of oneself. Those who are affected by the mentioned disorders are completely devoid of empathy for others (Miller, Widiger, & Campbell, 2010). In addition to this, the victims suffer as a result of low self-esteem that is merely caused by a slight criticism from others. Owing to this, individuals affected by the disorder faces some challenges in their daily and future life. Just to mention but a few, they tend to have relationships problems both in school and at workplaces, whey they are not given special attention or car resulting in unhappiness and disappointment, and a myriad of people invariably isolate themselves from these victims (Paulhus & Williams, 2002).

Causes of Narcissistic
According to the medical disorder, this order is caused by the unbalanced relationship between the parents and the child. For instance, if parents create a hostile relationship with his/her child during the growth stages then the child may develop relationship challenges with people in the external environment (Widiger, 2012). Also, psychologists point out that genetic can also lead to discussed disorder as a result of the poor connection between the brain, behavior, and thinking.
Risk Factors
A point to note is that this kind of disorder is rare and in most cases affect a person during childhood and at teenage. Medical practitioners argue that a child may show traits of the mentioned disorder during childhood stage; however, this is not a guarantee that he/she may develop personality disorder at early adult age (Soeteman, Verheul, & Busschbach, 2008). Prevalently, the disorder affects more males as compared to females, and in most cases, it begins during teenage or early adulthood. Another risk factor is the parental style. This is caused when parent over value a child and offer him/her a special attention and avoid child’s criticisms, this, in turn, causes the child to have a high sense of admiration, and a hidden low-self esteem which emanates when faced with criticism (In Besser, 2014).
Complications
There are complications that arise when narcissistic personality disorder is untreated. To begin with, the victim may face problems both in school and at the workplace as result of the relationship difficulties. Secondly, criticisms and lack of admiration from other people would affect their self-esteem leading emotional pain resulting from depression (In Besser, 2014). Thirdly, the above-mentioned complications may prompt the victim to have suicidal or behavioral thoughts.
Symptoms
Those suffering from the Narcissistic disorder are likely to show some symptoms. To start with, the victims possess an exaggerated and highly sense of self-importance. This means they only value themselves and belittle others. Such can occur when they monopolize the conversation and always perceive that they are right as compared to the opinion of others (Campbell & Miller, 2010). Similarly, the victims demand a sense of entitlement and recognition. This means other people have to respect, honor and value them. In the absence of the said recognition, their confidence would go down and register low-self esteem.
Another symptom of this disorder is that the victims behave in an arrogant and disrespectful manner. The mentioned behavior is attributed to the fact that they only value themselves and belittle others. In most cases, they are quick to dismiss the opinion of others without respect (Goodman & Leff, 2012). They have a negative attitude towards peoples’ thought. Worst to note is that they expect other people to support their arguments but are arrogant in dismissing other people point of view. Similarly, they are envious of others; this occurs when they perceive someone to be better than them. On the other, they always think that people are jealous of them.
Patients suffering from this disorder invariably perceive that they are most beautiful, brilliant, success, perfect, and have power. Additionally, these victims believe that they are superior to others and should only associate with their equals (Goodman & Leff, 2012). Furthermore, they take advantage of others with an expectation of getting what they want. In this respect, they expect other to show them favors, offer special treatment, and should not challenge their decision or opinion.
Treatment
Treatment of this disorder involves psychotherapy that includes helping to learn on how to relate with others. Also, this therapy assists the patients to have a clear understanding of their emotions and know what drive them to despise others (In Elzer & In Gerlach, 2014). The point is that the disorder is intricate to change over a short-term; therefore, therapy is a long-term process. Notably, there is no specific medication that treats the discussed disorder; however, those who suffer from anxiety and depression are advised to use medication such as anti-anxiety and antidepressants respectively.
Conclusion
From the discussion it worth concluding that narcissistic personality disorder affects a person during teenage and early adulthood. The disorder makes the victim to perceive themselves as important, special, and deserve special treatment of others. Any criticism may lower their self-esteem. This disorder causes an individual to have unpleasant relation with others. Psychotherapy may assist in treating the disorder.

References
Campbell, W. K., & Miller, J. D. (2011). The handbook of narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder: Theoretical approaches, empirical findings, and treatments. (EBL.) Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Goodman, C. L., & Leff, B. (2012). The everything guide to narcissistic personality disorder: Professional, reassuring advice for coping with the disorder : at work, at home, and in your family.
In Besser, A. (2014). Handbook of the psychology of narcissism: Diverse perspectives.
In Elzer, M., & In Gerlach, A. (2014). Psychoanalytic psychotherapy: A handbook.
Miller, J. D., Widiger, T. A., & Campbell, W. K. (2010). Narcissistic personality disorder and the DSM-V. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119(4), 640.
Widiger, T. A. (2012). The Oxford handbook of personality disorders. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. M. (2002). The dark triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of research in personality, 36(6), 556-563.
Soeteman, D. I., Verheul, R., & Busschbach, J. J. (2008). The burden of disease in personality disorders: diagnosis-specific quality of life. Journal of personality disorders, 22(3), 259.