World Narcissistic Abuse Awareness Day Date in the current year: June 1, 2024

The term “narcissism” derives from the Greek myth of Narcissus, a beautiful young man who fell deeply in love with his own reflection in a pool and eventually died because he was unable to stop looking at himself. It refers to a personality style characterized by excessive self-centeredness and selfishness. Pathological levels of narcissism may be a sign of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).

People with narcissistic personality disorder have an exaggerated feeling of self-importance, excessive craving for admiration, and reduced levels of empathy to other people’s feelings. The problem with NPD is that many of those affected do not realize they have a mental disorder that needs treatment, and some of them end up abusing people in their lives.

According to statistics between 1% and 6% of all people suffer from NPD. This number does not include people with other cluster B disorders that have similar traits (antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder). Although as we’ve already mentioned not all people with NPD are abusers, some of them are. Their victims may include partners, parents, children, friends, and co-workers, so the number of people potentially affected by narcissistic abuse is huge.

A lot of people affected by narcissistic abuse don’t even realize they’re being abused, which is especially true for children raised by narcissistic parents because they don’t know any better. This type of abuse is psychological and emotional. Unlike physical abuse, it leaves no marks and often goes unpunished because there are no laws prohibiting name calling or mind games.

Narcissistic people often come across as charming, kind and supportive, but there are signs that indicate you may be experiencing narcissistic abuse. Narcissistic abusers damage their victims’ self-esteem by making them feel useless or worthless so that they rely solely on their abusers for validation; force their victims to change in order to fit the wants of the abuser; subject their victims to gaslighting, making them question their own experiences and feelings; isolate them from family and friends.

Other common signs of narcissistic abuse include constant shaming, criticizing, belittling, blaming, lack of empathy, projection, twisting things around and blaming victims for their actions, persistent lying, silent treatment, emotional blackmail, making a competition out of everything, ignoring victim’s boundaries and invading their privacy, and more.

World Narcissistic Abuse Awareness Day was launched in 2016 to raise awareness of a type of abuse that often goes unnoticed and is difficult to prove, yet has lasting and harmful effects on those affected by it. It aims to educate people about the signs of narcissistic abuse, teach them how to avoid it, and provide resources for survivors.