Imagine how you would feel if someone compared you to a monster

Being a person with a serious mental illness (Bipolar Disorder), it sickens and angers me to continue reading and hearing that a certain person who currently holds a position of great power and responsibility in the US, and who has severe (some refer to it as Malignant) Narcissistic Personality Disorder, is in any way similar to, or representative of, those of us who truly suffer from a mental illness.

One could perhaps argue that he suffers to a degree, but the chasm between us and a person with Narcissistic or Antisocial Personality Disorders is huge. And the nature of this divide is that typically individuals on that side of the canyon spend most of their adult lives hurting other people, often so severely that they damage others for life. They also lack empathy, remorse, and even an ounce of willingness to change.

People on the other side of the chasm, which comprise a majority of those with mental illnesses (and even personality disorders like Borderline Personality Disorder), suffer immensely when untreated, harm themselves far more than others, can empathize, and often seek help and get into recovery.

I know these things from 25 years of reading about mental health and from talking to clinicians. Also from my personal experience with having Bipolar Disorder and from having been severely damaged by people with cruel, implacable personality disorders.

So please stop characterizing Malignant Narcissists as having a mental illness on par with those of us who truly do. It’s not the same. Not even close.

THEY ARE PREDATORS. We are not. And are often prey.

Imagine how you would feel if someone compared you to a monster.

It is sanism and ableism at its worst.