Comorbidity?

[Associate of Daniel]

I've read in many sources that pds often coexist with other mental illnesses such as depression.

But I don't read much here on these boards about comorbidity.

I know that, often, the pd behaviour masks the other illnesses.

My uNPD exH seems to be permanently depressed.  He told me not long after he left nearly 6 1\2 years ago that he'd been diagnosed with depression and anxiety.

It doesn't seem to be getting any better. Ds12 makes comments now and then about his dad being sad a lot of the time. I've never told him about the diagnosis or my suspicions of NPD.

Does anyone here know if their pd is sufferering any additional illnesses?  If so, do those illnesses ever get better, just leaving the personality disorder(sl) on its own?

AOD

[GentleSoul]

In my opinion, my husband has a number of different mental illnesses existing alongside each other, one at a time stepping into the limelight then the next one stepping up in turn.  Also adding in alcoholism which is a self medication to him and brings him lots of relief yet is deadly too.  It has destroyed much of his physical health and added to his mental health burdens.  He is now severely physically disabled, can hardly stand or walk.

He has had brain scans which show brain damage that it is felt it was born with, also a fault in his body's nervous system.  The messages cannot get around the body as many links are broken.

I am sure there was much more to find but at that point, he had had enough and didn't want to know any more.   

He is on a large number of daily medications but I do suspect they aren't probably the most suitable due to his usual habit of lying to our doctor, so they have been prescribed on what hubby has said rather than reality.  He is on a couple of opiates for pain which as I understand it cause problems with mental health and clarity too.

Gosh, I have never written all of this out in such detail before.  It feels like a load lifting off my shoulders.

[treesgrowslowly]

The question you posed is "do these other conditions get better?".

Depression, from what I have read, doesnt usually get better on its own. If it is grief or burnout perhaps it improves with time as emotions get processed but processing emotions according to writing on NPD would be unfamiliar to someone with NPD.

Many people respond to ssri's and there's that research that talks about exercise as beneficial for depression.

From all I've read and seen it seems that yes, NPDs can have comorbidity.

I just watched a youtube video on narcissism and she cited how NPDs don't want to feel flawed or be criticized, so admitting they are depressed to a doctor may be a challenge for them.

[Associate of Daniel]

I think that's it.

Where there is a pd (especially NPD or BPD), it stops them from admitting they have a "weakness" of depression or anxiety. So healing from such is impossible.

It's very sad.  It must be awful to live with all that going on in your head.

AOD

[practical]

I think that's it.

Where there is a pd (especially NPD or BPD), it stops them from admitting they have a "weakness" of depression or anxiety. So healing from such is impossible.

It's very sad.  It must be awful to live with all that going on in your head.

AOD

You hit the nail on the head, the inability to admit to an issue prevents any form of meaningful treatment.

M was diagnosed bipolar and I think NPD (undiagnosed). The combination made everything worse. She was treated for the bipolar, took medication, but as she never told her doctors how she was exactly was doing, they had no idea how horrible her depressive phases were not that she has suicidal ideation, she made it impossible to receive the care she needed. After she was committed, treated inpatient for several weeks, the doctors were finally able to get a somewhat better grip on her illness, but it was kind of too late then. - I only realized there must have been more than her bipolar after her death, because so many of her behaviors couldn't be explained with a bipolar diagnosis. Trying to understand one last time what was what, I ended up here and it was like finding the key finally.

uNPD/OCPDf is depressed, which he refuses to acknowledge despite diagnosis, but gets an SSRI for chronic pain, so he gets indirectly medicated for depression. It does help, but might be more efficient if he was treated specifically for depression so the medicine would be optimized for it. He also is of the opinion depression is something for sissies, getting up early, not slacking will fix it.  So besides not acknowledging you might also deal with "knowing best" if there is an acknowledgement of any kind, which then also leads to no treatment.

[Swarley]

I believe my uNPD friend  also suffers from undiagnosed depression and anxiety, and has some unaddressed grief and trauma issues and a rather serious hoarding problem as well. The only thing I see her potentially seeking any sort of help for is the trauma (trauma would be something that happened TO her, therefore not her fault and not something that would call for deeper self-examination, but would call for sympathy from others).

[Whiteheron]

stbx has been dx bipolar II, but in my unprofessional opinion, his "symptoms" point more towards BPD/NPD. In fact, googling his symptoms lead me to PD's and in turn, lead me to this site.

Like practical noted, the bipolar dx does not explain stbx's behaviors and tendencies. stbx also hides his true symptoms from everyone. In a moment of weakness (and rare honesty?) he admitted he had hallucinations - both visual and auditory. He also told me that if anyone truly knew what was going on inside his head, they would be scared. IDK if he was trying to scare me, or was being honest. I do remember telling him repeatedly that if he didn't tell his doc and T the truth, no one would be able to help him. I think that's what he wants. After all, he knows better than they do, so there's no reason why he can't manage his illness himself.