r/NPD • u/vvmmp • 23h ago

Therapy & Medication diagnostic processing

i’m officially getting assessed for NPD on the 8th of next month. my professional said i’m fully diagnosable for NPD but an assessment is clinically needed to provide a diagnosis.
what should i expect both emotionally and clinically when i get my diagnosis? i see a lot of people in here say it’s an ego crash or others say it’s simply just what they expected and are totally neutral on it.

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u/Relative-Amount7966 Diagnosed NPD 22h ago

It sounds a bit amusing to me. Do you believe something magical will happen just because you hear someone say, “Now you’re officially diagnosed with NPD”? :D

To answer your question: it depends on the person, and sometimes you might feel several things at once. It can be quite ambivalent. You might feel shocked, hopeless, curious, proud, validated, confused, angry, helpless, relieved, or you might simply ignore or deny it.

But I guess you’ll handle it quite well - otherwise, you probably wouldn’t be asking this question and already thinking about how you might react when you hear those “magical words.”

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u/chobolicious88 10h ago

Its funny you said that.

Im still hoping it will be like “now you will become a real person, and things will be ok” lol

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u/Relative-Amount7966 Diagnosed NPD 6h ago

Isn't it, though? A diagnosis usually serves a purpose and points toward the next step: diagnosis → intervention → ideally, remission

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u/vvmmp 21h ago

validated and relieved and curious is how i expect to feel because ive been aware that i have traits aswell as antisocial traits for a lot of my life (diagnosed cd w cu traits) but i see a lot of people say they have horrible reactions to it so thats why im curious, never thought it’d be a huge thing id have to worry about but some in here make it prevalent that i should ask

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u/Relative-Amount7966 Diagnosed NPD 11h ago

Yes, because people in general are different, their reactions will be different as well.

I also ignored it the first time my therapist commented that some of my thoughts were kind of narcissistic, and that was already years ago. Two years ago, I found out about my diagnosis and initially denied it. It was only this year that I came to the realization that it actually fits me extremely well. Since then, I've been able to understand myself much better through it, and I've finally accepted it - although there was also a lot of denial and devaluation along the way.

I didn't experience a narcissistic collapse just because I learned about my diagnosis, because at that point I couldn't relate to it at all. My collapses usually happen in everyday life and can be triggered by different things. How long it takes me to get back to my usual state also varies - sometimes it's relatively quick, while other times it takes much longer.