Upcoming Blog Talk Radio Show on Narcissism - Wednesday, June 3rd at 9:00pm

Please join us Wednesday, June 3rd at 9pm CST for our third episode of "All About Him - Understanding the Narcissist in your Life"

Please respond to this post with topics you would like us to discuss and/or questions you would like us to address.

The below article posted previously by Barbara illustrates the importance of our message. Way too many people are negatively affected by abusive narcissists or pathologicals. As I've mentioned before, the prevalence of narcissism is only increasing in our times because of the way society breeds it and promotes it.

We must bring awareness to those suffering at the hands of the narcissist. It took me eight years to figure out the implications of narcissism on a relationship. People need not live in the dark anymore and with your help together we can build awareness and help others just beginning to understand the narcissist in their life.

www.blogtalkradio.com/allabouthim

60 Million Persons in U.S. Negatively Affected By Someone Else's Pathology
Posted Wed, 05/06/2009 - 06:52
by Sandra Brown, MA
'How many people does pathology negatively affect?'
We did a little math... There are 304 million persons in the U.S. 1 in 25 people will have the disorders associated with 'no conscience' which include anti-social personality disorder, sociopath, and psychopath. 304 million divided by 25 is 12.16 million have no conscience. Each anti social/ psychopath will have approximately 5 partners who will be exposed to their pathology = 60.8 million people!
(This does not include the children negatively affected and since psychopaths are hypersexual they tend to have lots of children so we could certainly tack on about half that number for children based on 2.5 children per psychopath. And sadly, this does not include all the other forms of pathology related to Cluster B personality disorders that also negatively impact others such as Narcissistic Personality Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder. Current stats say that narcissism affects approximately 1% of the population and BPD at 2%. However, 60% of people who have 1 personality disorder have more than one personality disorder so it's likely that NPDs also have BPD or some ASPD and ASPDs have NPD and so on. So those numbers represent an overlap. (This is starting to challenge my math skills here...) But if we begin even with just the statistics on 1 in 25 have no conscience and multiply that out to figure out how many wounded people are out there -- it's a huge issue. )
The Institute's friend, Howard, who was trained in psychiatry, said "I consider this to be the country's number one public health issue." And with good reason---60 million people negatively impacted by someone else's extreme pathology. There is the emotional impact--the aftermath symptoms that leave 50% of the people with PTSD. That's about equal with the % of war vets who come home with PTSD from Iraq and other wars.
This emotional aftermath (with or without PTSD) causes treatable mental health symptoms like cognitive dissonance, intrusive thoughts, sleep disruptions, increase use of alcohol, concentration problems, flashbacks, and paranoia.
The emotional aftermath affects the work environment causing almost 50% of the persons negatively affected to have to cut back from full time to part time, be demoted taking lesser money, or go on short term disability for aftermath symptoms causing MILLIONS of dollars in lost wages. Doctors move to 'impaired practitioner status, attorneys step down to paralegals, social workers because mental health techs instead, others default to paid time off, using their vacation time, or go on disability and begin using state services such as food stamps and subsidized housing.
The aftermath also affects children who are then put into counseling, needs school-based services because of acting-out and behavioral problems, are distracted, suffer with declining grades, some will go on to have their own genetic transmission of their parent's personality disorder and others will be pseudo-affected -- acting like the pathological but without the transmission but still requiring a lot of therapy to overcome their patterns. This doesn't include the abject neglect that kids go through when being 'watched' by the pathological -- often malnourished, not on a schedule, not put to bed on time, exposed to high risk behavior (porn, drugs, lots of sexual partners, violence, other criminal types) and the child has a lot to over come. Since many of the personality disorders are parasitic by nature, they are also deadbeats by nature not paying child support (even if they can afford to) causing another drag on the government services while children need Medicaid and other benefits.
Many of the personality disordered types are also affected in moral reasoning and the levels of responsibility they take for their behavior. This includes not paying off debt which becomes written off as bankruptcies or the other partner assumes the debt placing them in financial chaos for 10 years or more while they dig out and live below their normal standard of living. Millions of dollars every year are written off and absorbed by financial institutions and credit card companies because of pathologicals causing an even bigger financial drain on our over-taxed economic system. These types also feel 'entitled' to have all the things they want so are likely to have bought luxury toys they can't afford -- more than 1 house, huge houses, expensive cars, vacations, boats, etc. and walk away from the financial responsibility.
It is estimated that over 60% of pathologicals have addictions including drugs, alcohol, gambling, and porn -- all causing millions of dollars in not only money spent on that, but money then not spent on their children, alimony, and their bills ending them up in mostly state-funded rehab programs causing yet another drag on the system.
Pathologicals are also highly litigious and don't follow court orders resulting in years spent in frivolous court activity putting a lag on the court systems either by using up court time, not following court order resulting in more court appearances, and using state appointment court resources, clogging up the court system. It also causes the partner high amounts of legal bills in fighting narcissistic-based law suits to simply spout their opinion in court or to exert power over the partner.
A moderate percent of pathologicals will be criminals using court resources, state appointment legal services, jail, prison, probation and parole services.
(Are you furious yet?)
This cluster of pathologicals with impaired moral reasoning, high impulsivity and hyper sexuality are those most likely to practice high risk sexual behaviors and thus have resulting STDs that they willingly share with others causing public health concerns.
This high impulsivity and low responsibility results in DUIs, speeding tickets, and jacked up insurance rates.
When we wonder if pathology and the lack of a national public awareness campaign is 'really' an issue we should consider that 'AT LEAST' 60 million people are being affected by someone else's pathology -- and pathology is increasing as more women have children with them and as more children are being raised by them, thus influenced by them.
http://www.saferelationshipsmagazine.com