Can a Narcissist Be Faithful in a Relationship? (Yes or No, With Reasons)

Can a Narcissist Be Faithful in a Relationship? If you are dating a narcissist, worrying about the success rate of your relationship with them and the faithfulness of a narcissistic partner might naturally cause you to worry, as narcissists have an impression of being unfaithful and fickle. At the same time, if they are involved in a romantic relationship with you, there is also a possibility that they might be involved with someone else, just to obtain their narcissistic supply or maybe some other reason!

So how do you make sure of the fact that they are genuinely being faithful to you in the relationship? Is there any way to maybe test the faithfulness of a narcissistic partner? Can a narcissist be unfaithful? If yes what are the reasons? Or if they are faithful, can they love you with all you have to offer? What are some ways to know if a narcissist cheating on you? All these questions might be popping up in your head, the minute the words faithful and unfaithful are associated with your relationship with the narcissist.

Do not get worried, as right here, this article would be providing answers to all these questions, reassuring all the doubts that you have regarding the complex relationship with the narcissist.

Why does a relationship with a narcissist seem difficult?

Narcissists are selfish and fickle beings. They would always prioritize their needs, their desires, and their well-being over yours. You might face this when you are involved with them in any sort of relationship with a narcissist, be it romantic, be it familial, or work-related relationship. Them always prioritizing their own self may be clear by a few incidents that you might have come across while associating with them.

Generalizing the same personality traits for all narcissists might not seem as appropriate as each individual is different due to the atmosphere in which they have been raised, the care and parenting they received, and the fostering.

Having said that there can be a few traits that remain common for all narcissists, which include manipulating people, abusing them for their benefit, having toxic relationships due to their toxic thoughts, cheating, and lying to cover up their acts of dishonesty, and much more included in there. Thus cheating and lying are natural traits for a narcissist which are ingrained in their behavioral patterns.

The prime reason narcissists jump from relationship to relationship is their urge to obtain the maximum amount of narcissistic supply. They usually trap their victims into their manipulative games by using techniques such as narcissistic projection, love bombing, and showing a fake desirable future to retain their new relationship to obtain the maximum narcissistic supply.

You might be worried about them cheating due to the changes in their behavior, them being ignorant towards you, and many more.

Can a Narcissist Be Faithful in a Relationship?

When it comes to faithfulness, one can expect the narcissist to be somewhat faithful in the initial stages of the relationship, but as relationships get older and antiquated, the narcissist might cheat on their partners just because they might be bored, or because their partners are unable to satisfy their needs or they found someone better and interesting than their current partner.

Narcissists have a huge ego to satisfy. Narcissists have zero control over themselves. They get easily distracted wherever they get a little attention as they are big attention seekers. Narcissists have no term for guilt or remorse in their dictionary. All they do is make you feel guilty for something that they have done. But they would never be guilty or ashamed of what they have done due to their high ego and zero self-control.

They cheat on you when the narcissist feels that the charm and chase are over, the excitement and lust are gone, the purpose (whatever they have been using you for like money, physical intimacy, just to cop with their former breakup or a fresh supply) is over, and they finally can no longer use you for their gains; these can be some of the most common reasons why narcissist would cheat on you.

Narcissists often cheat on their partners as they lack feelings like care, sympathy, and understanding. Narcissist is always in search of new supply, so they often keep trying to establish several relationships along with their current one. Narcissists are self-centered and pathetic when it comes to understanding feelings, so they often change partners when they feel the current partner cannot give them what they want.

The possibility of a narcissistic being completely faithful is ideally nill, but not all narcissists are unfaithful. Even though most narcissists are unfaithful in relationships, there are a few exceptions who might be faithful and might stick to their partners without cheating. So it is unfortunate to discuss, but a narcissistic partner is most likely to cheat on you, so be prepared to face this in reality, when your narcissistic partner starts displaying some cheating signs.

Narcissist Cheating Signs You Should Not Deny

  • Avoids meeting you with excuses
  • Cancels plans at the last minute
  • Sudden behavioral changes
  • Excessively showering you with love and other expensive gifts and surprising you
  • Disappearing suddenly for days and changing the topic when you ask about their disappearance
  • A sudden drop in communication
  • Lies Lies and only Lies
  • Do not allow you to go anywhere around their phones, tablets, or any belongings
  • Always on their phone
  • Showing no interest in physical intimacy with you
  • If by chance you get a hint about them cheating, blaming you for everything

Most narcissists would cheat in relationships, as the traits of a narcissistic personality disorder like lack of empathy, self-control, and lust-driven desires (as they are totally desire-driven beings) make it difficult for them to resist their desires and be faithful.

Reasons why most narcissists cannot be faithful

1. Loyalty is their weak pursuit

Narcissists fear abandonment, betrayal, and disgrace while they are in a relationship. They are not loyal to the partners but they would keep testing their partner’s loyalty. They expect their partners to be truthful and devoted to them, but when it comes to them, they would be the most ungrateful and unfaithful partners anyone could ever get.

Narcissists are even unfaithful to their own selves, then expecting them to be faithful to someone else is like expecting water in the desert. They are not even faithful to their own mothers, so how can someone like them be faithful to the person they dated for months or years?

2. Narcissists love on their own terms

Narcissists are afraid to confess anything as according to them they are perfect, have no faults, they are superior to others and nobody can understand them better than themselves. Thus they lack empathy, care, emotional bond, and intimacy. They would be emotionally unavailable to you. Narcissists have very low self-esteem and are insecure about what others would think of them.

Narcissists have a different definition of love or they are different in approach to love. As their relationships are based on transactions (i.e. until they can gain from you)they may never truly understand the normal meaning of love as we all perceive and expect. They may love you in the way that they understand love. If you are willing to accept their terms of love then you can have a sustainable relationship with a narcissist. You may also not reach a dating stage sometimes with a narcissist where love or emotional bonding is required as narcissists are incapable of having long-term relationships.

3. They are Dishonest

Narcissists have a very huge ego to satisfy, so they always want to prove a point by lying. They just consider themselves smarter than others. An egoistic narcissist often tends to lie due to their deceiving characteristics and traits. Narcissists believe that the Truth makes them feel inferior to others.

They think a twisted truth or a no truth would suit their personality better rather than being all honest. When a narcissist feels that they are losing control over you or the situation, or they’re being showered with doubtful eyes, or their partner has hints of them cheating or doing something malicious, then their insecurities and fear force them to take such measures which include all sorts of extreme lies.

4. Narcissists are highly self-centered

Narcissists hardly care about others, thus they are mean and truly self-centered. They would just desire all the attention they can possibly get. Once they feel they have complete control over you, and that you are hooked to them, they might completely stop being that sweet and caring. It is only during the initial dating phase, that a narcissist would provide you with their attention, in the later stages they might call you needy or dependent when you expect them to pay some attention.

Narcissists always put their needs, their wishes, and their priorities first and then think about you. So when they say they love you, it means that you are fulfilling their needs and their wishes and thus they have developed a connection with you which may or may not be love.

5. They are afraid of long-term commitments

Narcissists are afraid of commitments and lack emotional bonding. They might be making false promises or commitments, but they do not come true to them. They prefer to date many prospects, but refrain to give life-long commitments. Usual relationships with a narcissist are short termed, they get what they want and skip to other relationships without providing a proper closure or providing any reasons for the breakup.

6. They lack self-control

Narcissists have an inflated sense of self-importance. They believe that they are special and they are entitled to special treatment. This belief may lead them to behave as they wish which also might be selfish and reckless. They also lack empathy for others which is also an addition to their selfish and mean behavior that makes them manipulate others without giving it a second thought.

If they find someone charming and attractive, they would just find ways to lure and charm them even though they are dating someone. All they want is attention, attraction, and fling at this moment. They are lusty and have a higher sex drive, thus they may not think twice before cheating as they are desire-driven beings.

7. A narcissist does not want to be tied down

A lack of empathy makes it difficult for a narcissist to genuinely devote themselves to their partner. They continuously fear real feelings, as they think they might lose their power and love can make them weak. Narcissists hate weakness as power, control, money, supply, and competency are all they love. Narcissists may not know or do not want to acknowledge the concept of love as their relationships are completely based on receiving their supply be it with multiple partners.

8. They will do anything for their narcissistic supply

Narcissistic supply is one of the prime reasons for them to date commit to a relationship. They do not have love as the first priority, their first priority is obtaining their supply, once they drain you completely out of supply they would leave you or might still have you as their backup source of supply. and Narcissists also have their own stock of narcissistic supply.

9. They feel they are entitled

Narcissists have a sense of entitlement which they fulfill with the help of the supply. They do not view a human as a human with needs, emotional attachment, or any source of emotional connection. They first view them as their source of supply, weigh their positives and negatives, and then proceed with them and visualize them as humans with substantial needs.

Can a Narcissist truly Love someone?

A narcissist is capable of feeling all emotions, it is just that they d not acknowledge them and express them due to their vulnerabilities. They fear expressing emotions can make them emotionally weak and vulnerable to their partner. They fear that once they surrender to their feelings they might lose control.

Narcissists are afraid to confess anything as according to them they are perfect, have no faults, they are superior to others and nobody can understand them better than themselves. Thus they lack empathy, care, emotional bond, and intimacy. They would be emotionally unavailable to you. Narcissists have very low self-esteem and are insecure about what others would think of them.

Maybe narcissists have a different definition of love or they are different in approach to love. As their relationships are based on transactions (i.e. until they can gain from you)they may never truly understand the normal meaning of love as we all perceive and expect. They may love you in the way that they understand love. If you are willing to accept their terms of love then you can have a sustainable relationship with a narcissist. You may also not reach a dating stage sometimes with a narcissist where love or emotional bonding is required as narcissists are incapable of having long-term relationships.

For how long can a Narcissist stay faithful in a relationship?

Maybe narcissists have a different definition of love or relationships or they are different in their approach to commitments. As their relationships are based on transactions (i.e. until they can gain from you)they may not willingly try or would never truly understand the normal meaning of love as you may perceive and expect. They may love you in the way that they understand love.

If you are willing to accept their terms of love then you can have a sustainable relationship with a narcissist. You may also not reach a dating stage sometimes with a narcissist where love or emotional bonding is required as narcissists are incapable of having long-term relationships. While in some cases you might fully commit to a narcissist and they might also do the same and get married, but many times the relationship might not turn out as you expected it to turn up.

The duration of a narcissistic relationship completely relies on each different individual. As every narcissist varies depending on various factors and circumstances like low self-esteem, the ways and surroundings while they were being brought up, family members that surround them, their desire to involve with other people without many selfish reasons, loneliness, and much more.

Do All Narcissists Cheat?

The infidelity rate is quite higher among narcissists, which may become a concern for all those who are romantically associated with a narcissist. So can a narcissist be trusted with this matter? Are all narcissists the same? So the answer to this question is, “NO, not all narcissists are the same. It completely depends on the individual beliefs and characteristics of a person.

The answer to this question may also seem dubious, as individuals cannot just be predicted on some characteristics and assumptions, so one cannot prove that all narcissists do cheat usually. But cheating is a trait certainly strongly attached and associated with narcissistic personalities. Narcissists do put a false identity or lie unbelievably so that no one can think they can be dishonest. They can perfectly portray an innocent character by lying straight to your face and that too with expertise.

Conclusion

The most important aspect that one must take care of is the toxic association with the narcissist. Rather than worrying about them being unfaithful or them cheating, one must be conscious and aware of toxic personalities.

An association with a toxic personality might leave emotional scars that might last for life long. Remember that you deserve to be in a healthy relationship that nurtures you, and makes you feel loved and supported. So worry about getting into a toxic relationship first, rather than them cheating on you, as the narcissists are not going to change just merely for you, but only you can save yourself by distancing from them.

Ella Carrillo

Ella Carrillo

Hey Reader, I am Ella, an Online and Offline Therapist holding an experience of 6 years in this field. From Relationship, Depression, and Personality Disorder to Narcissistic problems, I have helped a lot of people find their solutions. Upon gathering a number of common problems that people face, I decided to put the information on this blog so that anyone can get their answers easily.

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *