Sovereign + Safe
I am very interested in the distinction you make here between NPD and addict. I am focusing on your description of an addict:
WHereas addiction is something that takes hold of a person.. often a substance
or an addictive habit to fill up a void.. but does not define the persons
whole life, whole personality.
I am able to see how I took on many characteristics from my N father. Whether these characteristics were out of wounding or from modelling I'm not sure. But I am sure that I have a hole and it feels like free floating anxiety and low grade depression every moment of every day. For me, it seems that this wounding is what has taken hold of me and so it functions something like an addiction. For a while I could not separate the two: me and my maladaptive behavior. But like your description of addiction my maladaptive behavior
"does not define the person". There was a long time when your desciption of NPD's applied to me.
"Their whole structure of identity is involved. Their defense system. It is part of who they are." But I have ALWAYS wanted to change. And I have searched for the answer to my question, "What is wrong with me." since I was a child. And that is what distinguishes me from a person with NPD and a person with narcissistic behaviors. -GS
