A wonderful, retired therapist that I follow on Medium compared it to the new car syndrome. When you buy a new car, you suddenly see them all over the road. It's the same thing with narcissism. For hundreds of years we've been suffering at the hands of - not only those with NPD - but those exhibiting severe narcissistic traits. We now have a name for it. We now have anecdotal evidence to help us piece together what tf just happened to us.

I'm sure there are people who use the word interchangeably between clinical and simply exhibiting traits, but the fact is that there are A LOT of these people roaming the streets, damaging others.

Many are parents who have irreversibly damaged their children's abilities to make strong and lasting connections.

Some are exes we're trying (unsuccessfully) to co-parent with.

So yeah, it's kind of a big deal.

If you've never been in any kind of relationship with someone exhibiting these traits - lucky you! But please don't disregard the rest of us who are trying to heal from the absolute mind f*** we just experienced. It is, in fact, NOT just general a**hole behavior. It's very specific behaviors, that, as others have said, fly under the radar.

That's why when recognition finally dawns we all want to talk about it. Because it is genuinely the craziest making experience you'll ever have.