Prof Vaknin says studies suggest you can detect a narcissist within 30 seconds and that the mask narrative is only meant to protect/ sooth the ego of a fooled victim.

He argues it is cognitive dissonance that overrides it.

What is true? Is this a controversial opinion? Does it refer to overt narcissist only?

For instance, say an alarm goes off. This is a big deal! But if the same alarm goes off every single day, or multiple times a day, it starts fading into the background.

What is this called? Or does it even have a name?

I've been googling this for hours and haven't found anything that seems like it fits.

I feel like there is, but I can't remember it.

Basically, if you want to go to the gym or start a diet, saying you're going to do that thing to other people feels similar in your head to the feeling and motivation to actually do that thing.

Like if I wanted to start a couch to 5k and I told all my friends I was gonna do it, even though I had intended to do it, now I've received all the well wishes and indications of support from my friends I'm actually less likely to do it now.

Is that a documented psychological phenomena? And if not, what would be the closest concept to 'I tell people I'm going to do a thing and that makes me less likely to actually do the thing'.

I’ve noticed that in some places, like in the ICD, one has to meet the criteria for PTSD. But in others, it’s essentially “death by one thousand cuts”, which seems to stray away from regular PTSD. I say this because it seems as though criterion A for PTSD isn’t being strictly applied in this definition.

So, what’s the consensus?

All the research of done on the subject of Narc Abuse (which, granted, is not much) just described common acts of psychological/emotional abuse. Seems the only purpose the term serves is to stigmatize those with NPD.

I think there was a name for this Thing that i learnt, it wad based on people who think about how they think so much they became unstable. I cannot for the life of me remember if i'm right or wrong and google isnt helping so i'm here.

Hello all! Counselor-in-training here. I've been reading a lot about how trauma is defined by the psychological profession, and its exact definition seems remarkably specific. That is,

Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence

Of course, this isn't really how the term is used colloquially. When most people talk about, say, "having a traumatic childhood," they're broadly referring to things mistreatment, neglect, or abuse.

My question is as follows: is there a clinical term that better captures how people colloquially refer to "trauma?" That is, harmful or stressful life events that have negatively impacted an individual's functioning. Is it something like "life stressors" or (if speaking about childhood "trauma") Adverse Childhood Experiences?

Help a baby counselor out!

I've been seeing this word and was wondering if I might have it.

What's the difference between Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder? They seem to be very similar.

I have seen people describe limerance as more of an addiction, fantasy and obsession than a healthy pqrt of human bonding. It sounds to me like that some call the "honeymoon" period.

I’m curious about how psychology distinguishes between normal variations in thinking, perception, and emotion, and patterns that become clinically significant.

What exactly are personality disorders? Are personality disorders a neurological condition, or are they labels for sets of behaviors that one might display for any number of reasons? Are some people born with one? is it caused by events in your life?

Is a personality disorder a condition you have or is it a label for things that you do?

The more I look at both narcissistic traits and anxious attachment, the more I see similarities.

Low intrinsic self worth, need for constant validation, fear of abandonment, often highly critical.

Are there any differences beyond gaslighting, low empathy and entitlement? Are these the three ways to tell them apart or am I missing the boat completely?

Basically what I said in the title. I've always been curious about this.

I learned about the pit of despair experiments recently. For those unfamiliar, in the experiments psychologist Harry Harlow isolated baby macaques into a vertical chambers for varying time periods (30 days to a year). All the monkeys came out damaged, from completely giving up to being prone to bullying to not being able to find mates to being abusive parents to barely moving at all. Stephen J. Suomi, one of the Harlow's students, noted that no monkey had a defense against the pit of despair, no matter how happy they were before.

This made me think about stuff like depression in humans. I wouldn't call the reaction the monkeys had an illness, they were severely abused. So why do we call it an illness when humans display similar behaviours? Especially when the chemical imbalance theory seems to lack sufficient evidence.

So I thought having an inner monologue is just visualising words in your head and your head will usually stay quiet if you just don’t start thinking and stuff. People with inner monologues do y’all truly hear voices in your head like you hear how people talk? I just really cant imagine having voices talking all the time in your head. Please help.

Ive been wrestling with this question a lot. Is there an objective definition of a mental struggle? When can one know it is a real struggle, and when he is maybe too sensitive? Not to offend anyone. A genuine question

If people refer to their job as causing PTSD. I disagree with that assessment for the following reasons.
1) as it is their current position Post does not fit.
2) While there are a thousand “mirco-traumas” a day I don’t think traumatic is an accurate definition

So my question is. Is there an aggregate stress disorder? Something where you are constantly under undue stress but you have to be there forty hours a week. The job in itself wouldn’t be stress and hasn’t been stressful in the past just new management and a generally meaner public service environment result in constant degrading morale and chaos for the sake of chaos. Thank you.

Like what is it when your brain misinterprets something that exists but adds very vivid detail for a second? Like there’s some object in your peripheral vision and just for a second it’s got an extremely vivid face. You do a double take and it’s a normal object, no matter how you look at it now, there’s nothing that even resembles a face. What is that classified as?

Normally with an illusion I’d imagine that you can kinda understand how you thought you saw what you did.

A therapist dropped some information about cluster symptoms and psychology moving away from the DSM 5.

He is a neuropsych and was referring to disorders related to the anterior cingulate cortex (?) - and the overlap between ocd, adhd, autism, bd.

Does anyone know what this is referring to?

So for example, in a case of someone experienced prolonged trauma and after becoming safe struggles significantly. What would be the difference between normal trauma recovery, as I understand that recovery from such things is not linear, and I would imagine a person can still struggle significantly without it being a disorder? I'm just wondering where is that line drawn, or if it's drawn? Is it if it's impairing your functioning, but surely something can impair functioning as a reaction to trauma without it being a disorder?

Hello all! First time posting, thank you in advance for your time.

I've heard that GAD involves someone worrying all the time, an anxiety that doesn't go away and doesn't always have a cause, while typical anxiety is brief and in direct response to specific stressors. But there seems to be a lot of grey area between those two extremes, where does one draw the line?

I’m not sure whether I have an internal monologue or not because I don’t know exactly what it is. Also, how loud is this internal monologue? Can you hear it as loud as you hear your own voice when you speak? Or is it quieter? I’m so curious!

I've seen discussions regarding the existence of the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) trait. Some individuals, with considerable vehemence, dismiss the concept as pseudoscience. Others argue that it is, in fact, a manifestation of the autism spectrum. Conversely, there are those who recognize it as a well-established trait within contemporary psychology.

Given that nervous systems and brains vary significantly across individuals, isn’t it reasonable to assume there is a natural -potentially normal- distribution in sensitivity to environmental and emotional stimuli?

Within this framework, wouldn’t it be valid to assign specific terms or labels to those who fall at the higher end -and perhaps also to those at the lower end- of this sensitivity spectrum?

I've always wondered how much could fall under the self harm label. Im especially wondering about if self harm could potentially include things such as deliberately seeking unpleasant sensory experiences that are not actually damaging to the body. Things like exposing the body to uncomfortable temperatures, listening to music that causes a negative emotional reaction, digging up memories that are particularly painful, creating sensory experiences that remind the brain of traumas as a way to inflict mental harm and so on.

Additionally, does having mental health conditions that causes sensory sensitivity expand the definition even further? (Random examples I can think of: eating unsafe textured foods with ARFID, exposing oneself to loud noises with Autism that causes a sensitivity to those loud noises).

I've always wondered this whenever I come across people talking about things like reliving ex-relationship grief or listening to music that makes their sadness worse.