Recent content by GammaRay

It saddens me to read this and also reminds me of the way I feel towards myself some days. It was your parents job to step in and stop this. I had siblings that could be abusive to those younger/weaker than them. I place all of the blame on my parents for not being parents and putting a stop to...

@Charbella, by "the AI," do you mean chatGPT or something else?

I've come to think CBT isn't the modality for me. I just can't seem to talk or rationalize my way to feeling better. This is the kind of thing I hate hearing, but I suppose you're right. I want to pull the trauma out by its roots somehow. I guess I haven't found coping to be all that helpful...

What I'm trying to understand is: how does writing something in a journal compare to saying it to a therapist? Is saying it to a therapist less likely to be triggering or retraumatizing? The reverse? Is there any way to make journaling more purgative and healing and less painful or agitating?

Whoa, I wasn't aware of this. Are there actual statistics you can cite? I wonder why this is so.

Indeed. As more cases related to the rich/famous/powerful make the news, I'm wondering: will anyone who thinks they can get away with this kind of thing do it? Or is there an abusive personality type that gravitates towards high status?

How have the spate of public cases involving celebrities like Diddy, Weinstein, and others affected survivors of sexual trauma and domestic abuse? How do you feel about plaintiffs waiting years to come forward? Has it made you reexamine past experiences and judge them as abusive or nonconsensual...

Really needing a therapist lately, but unable to find one who takes my insurance and offers in-person sessions. So I turned to journaling the last couple of nights. While doing it, I felt like I was unwinding some coils and breathing a bit easier. You know it - the processing feeling. Then last...

This seems strange since, from what I've read, self awareness is a huge weakness in narcissists. In other words, narcissists aren't self aware enough to know that they're narcissists, let alone make a study of their disorder. That is one thing that struck me as perhaps suspicious, if not...

I saw a television special with him once. He focuses on NPD - and actually claims to be a narcissist himself I believe. I don't know if he has written about the malignant narcissist subtype, with sadism and paranoia being additional distinct features.

@Flossy, did your mother also present paranoid tendencies? This is one of the symptoms of malignant narcissism.

This is interesting. Have any therapists or other healthcare providers you've seen been able to explain how PTSD could cause these physical symptoms? And thank you so much for taking the time to write that. I hope that expressing it here helps you process and release some of the pain.

And what's with the term "malignant?" Is that the most fitting, accurate term? Aren't most Cluster B people malignant? Why is the MN especially malignant?

Not a jolly topic but nonetheless ... LOL. Do you feel confident that you can diagnose those people? Do they check all the boxes on the diagnostic criteria?

There doesn't seem to be a ton of information about malignant narcissism out there. It's a type of narcissism that includes all the traits you'd expect from standard narcissism (profound insecurity, excessive need to admiration, etc.). In addition, malignant narcissists are said to have symptoms...