What parents need to know about teenage Narcissistic Personality Disorder
‘Narcissistic behaviour’ is a term that brings to mind beautiful women staring at mirrors, teens spending all day on selfies, and men constantly talking about themselves. But it’s not so simple. Narcissistic behaviour, an alarming and rising trend among teens, can manifest itself in different ways, the selfie being a minor factor. To spot and manage Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), parents and teens need to discover the root of the insecurity that causes this behaviour
NPD in teens: Symptoms to watch out for
Teens suffering from NPD do not lend themselves easily to treatment since they are unwilling to listen to others. They have trouble following even simple directions and keep challenging authority, often without clear idea about what they are opposing and why. Here’s a list of common NPD symptoms:
- Always expecting to be right, feeling better than everybody else, expecting praise without effort, boasting, ad false ideas about their own strength, excellence, and beauty
- They feel they are indispensible to all occasions and try to dominate conversations
- They try to manipulate others and exploit them to achieve what they want, including belittling peer group members and coaxing them to become followers
- Intense and unreasonable anger if opposed, high stress levels, unable to accept corrective advice, and sense of inability, shame, weakness from mysterious sources
Causes of teen NPD
Causes vary from person to person, but most teens develop NPD due to 2 major reasons:
Environment: Being raised in an atmosphere where failure does not exist, and anything less than perfect is unacceptable can plant the seeds of narcissistic behaviour. Sometimes gender prejudices and sibling / class rivalry ay also cause it
Neurobiology and hormonal changes: Neural synapses and hormonal changes vary widely and cannot be generalised. A minor trait may take over the entire existence of a child on reaching puberty. So OCD can lead to NPD and vice versa
Treatment of NPD
Teenage Narcissistic Personality Disorder should primarily be therapy-based with a licensed psychologist on individual, family and group therapy basis. Usually no specific drug treatments are prescribed to treat NPD, but medications may be prescribed to deal with the accompanying anxiety and depression.