How Long Can A Narcissist Go Without Supply? (Can They Survive Without It?)
How Long Can a Narcissist go without Supply? What is Narcissistic Supply? Can a narcissist survive without their narcissistic supply? To obtain the answers to these questions, stay with us till the end of the article.
If you know about narcissism, have come across a narcissist, or have a narcissistic partner or a family member you might have come across the word “Supply“. Supply is everything that makes them important like control, praise, worth, ego boost, and everything that makes them feel superior.
What is Narcissistic supply?
A narcissistic supply is everything that makes a narcissistic life fulfilled. It is that one thing that a narcissist always craves even if it is in its negative forms, that is attention. One can even say that a narcissist is only able to fulfill their life purposes on the basis of supply itself. They feel handicapped without their sources of admiration, attention, validation, importance, and everything that makes them feel special. Narcissists seek supply more than anything, and they could do everything to obtain their dose of supply.
Narcissists are supply junkies. They are so much dependent on the source of supply for validation that they are ready to compromise their self-opinionated self. As we might have seen drug addicts go crazy in movies, in the same way, narcissists just like addicts, behave insanely weirdly and differently when they are unable to secure 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.
They have a tendency to keep a stock of supply, from potential suppliers like their exes, old friends, or even family members. It is an addiction, that can not be cured completely even with the help of therapy. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a psychological mental health condition where an individual is subject to facing such urges of obtaining admiration, validation, importance, or anything that makes them feel superior to others.
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. Everybody craves attention, but in the case of narcissists, they crave constant and undivided attention.
Narcissists seek constant attention or create situations where they would easily obtain attention, to hide their true selves. They hide their true selves behind the false lustrous selves that they have created to impress others and seek praise, validation, and attention. They cannot see themselves degrading in any matter in life so they just keep trying hard to maintain their false shiny image rather than actually being that self. So they always seek praise and attention from others all the time.
A narcissist is an incorrigible person who is not able to acknowledge their own mistakes and considers themselves spotless and perfect. They try to be perfectionists and idealists and claim veneration. Thus it becomes strenuous to continue the relationship in such a manner, as narcissists are so difficult to handle.
Why do Narcissists seek supply? – Why do narcissists need their supply?
We live in a society that is always expecting something more and better every day from us, expects to be on our best behavior all the time, fulfill everyone’s wishes and be true to what others expect from us. So this constant pressure and lack of freedom in society force out negative traits of humans or be less positive day by day. Thus we are only making people this way. So unless society is more liberal in terms of thoughts and freedom, people with such psychological disorders would emerge in larger amounts making it a more complicated world for living and revival.
Children learn from their parents. Narcissistic individuals often gain their traits from their parents along with their psychological issues. Narcissistic parents pass down the legacy of narcissistic traits along with many other hardships to their child and thus a narcissist is born that day. Narcissistic parents play a vital role in making a narcissist for society and shaping them this way.
Narcissistic parents would only be passing on narcissistic traits to their children in the form of childhood trauma as an inherent quality knowingly or unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly, by choice or without choice. Unless the Narcissists are guided toward what is right, instead of toxic behavior, there is no way a child will not learn all those narcissistic traits possessed by their Narcissistic parents.
Often it is observed by mental health experts, that the children raised by narcissists have childhood trauma, which affects their upbringing and also makes the same or even more narcissistic than their parents. Narcissistic parents are almost emotionally unavailable, self-centered, and egoistic, lash out in anger more frequently, have a very low rate of understanding, and blame the child, rather than looking at their fault or understanding their child. Thus when the children of such narcissistic parents become adults in such a negative atmosphere, they are unable to unlearn all those toxic traits as they have never seen the other side of humanity.
Narcissistic parents are never emotionally available for a child and they always want their children to seek their validation so the children thus while adulting seek all these in the form of supply. Children of NPD(Narcissistic Personality Disorder) parents often tend to bottle up emotions, withdraw from emotional bonding with anyone else, or are emotionally damaged and lack to understand others. Narcissists are incapable of understanding and exchanging feelings with others.
They are self-obsessed and self-absorbed and they can not think from anyone else’s viewpoint, thus they consider their partners, friends, or anyone closely associated with them as a form of supply who would provide them attention, praise, validation, and everything that boosts their ego. All of this attention, praise, validation, and everything that boosts their ego is always wanted by narcissistic parents from their children, so children of narcissistic parents always seek these from others as they have always faced and observed this while growing up.
Narcissistic children struggle to place themselves in the world due to their childhood trauma where they always had to face emotional unavailability, scapegoating, trust issues, love-bombing, flattery, giving in control, toxicity, and much more. Thus they use the supply that they obtain from other human beings as a defense mechanism, shield, or protective layer to survive in society by losing or hiding their real selves behind their masks.
Narcissists have either been in such a toxic atmosphere and so they do not change and opt for the same cruelty, or they consider the toxic behavior as normal as they have never experienced anything better.
Ultimately all human beings are good at the core, nobody is born that way, but it is the ways or pursuits of life which are fitted in your life and are forced to pursue that you forget the line between the good and bad. So these are the ways you need to unlearn and establish your own ways of living life. This is completely related to a narcissist, they are a good person, but they just have come to become this way, as they have come across similar personalities so they were not given a chance to improve probably.
How does a Narcissist utilize their supply?
Narcissists would not substantiate the fact that they survive and fit into the world with the help of supply, as they feel nothing could weaken their existence, but without supply, they would not be able to function smoothly and effortlessly. They are unable to process the thought of not having a source of supply so they always have their sources of supply lined up. As chefs stock up their refrigerators, in the same way, narcissists stock up their life with variable sources of supply in the form of friends, exes, life partners, family members, or even their romantic partners.
Narcissists are always in search of a fresh supply and people tend to fall victim to their many charms. One of them is mirroring. They would be impressing you with words you like, their likes and dislikes would match yours, and they would be pretending to understand you in a way that nobody else could making a comfortable atmosphere for you to be impressed by their mirroring techniques.
Narcissists would often present their image as desired by you, they would mention all those traits that are liked by you, and they would make their image so spotless and desirable that you would be deceived by their charming fake personalities. They would often lie to you about their real selves. They would always wear a fake mirrored mask to keep you interested in them.
There are a few other factors that determine how narcissist obtain their supply from people,
- Narcissists always try to seek attention, mainly because they like to attract the opposite gender.
- Narcissists would try to make themselves look more brilliant and appealing in a crowd by giving unnecessary advice to people without being asked.
- To draw attention or to prove a point they would use a loud voice which may disturb or upset some people.
- They always need privacy with their matters, but for you, they would be gossip kings or queens. They would not hesitate to smear your image if you make them feel inferior.
- People with low self-esteem fall prey to their desirable charming personalities which are mirrored most of the time or are just fake facades that they have built to impress.
- They always like to show off their materialistic possessions, especially to those who do not possess them, and make you feel inferior to them.
- Narcissists always tend to stay away or shun or insult people with harsh and cruel words when people make them inferior or give them an inferiority complex.
- Narcissists always tend to create unnecessary drama over trivial matters to just gain sympathy and empathy from others.
- Narcissists would always make fun of or mock someone from whom they feel competitive or defeated as they always wish to be the elephant in the room.
How Long Can a Narcissist go without Supply?
This totally depends upon the type of individual the narcissist is. Narcissists usually and most probably always do have a backup supply option in case they lose their supply source. So they do not have to get along without supply as narcissists cannot function properly without their daily dose of supply. But with time and passing age, their charm is fading and they cannot easily lure their source of supply.
During such times they have to go without supply. A narcissist would actually not miss you when you leave them or they dump you but they would miss their source of supply with whom they used to boost their thirst for an unquenchable ego. Narcissists would often try to come back into your life until they find a new supply.
When a narcissist loses their source of supply, they cannot just let this go lightly. Them letting you go would not be easy, also there might be a longgoing hoovering that would not let you dump them easily. They might curse you, would try to defame you, would smear your reputation, and also might bad-mouth you to the next person you might try to get with. Narcissists can stoop low sometimes when they are not ready to let you go easily or they have no substitute to fulfill their needs of narcissistic supply.
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.
A narcissist is always in search of supply, so a Narcissist would always want you to continue as friends even after breaking the relationship as romantic partners, so this depends upon you whether to be their victim again by accepting their offer.
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. Everybody craves attention, but in the case of narcissists, they crave constant and undivided attention.
Can Narcissists survive without a Narcissistic supply?
Other than their primary source of supply, narcissists also have secondary or even tertiary sources of supply in case they lose their primary source. In those cases, they might not obtain substantial supply from their other sources but they can obtain enough t survive. Yes! Narcissists can survive without their narcissistic supply but they never go for that extreme option, as they have never been trained or taught that they can even survive without validation, fakeness, control, ego, and all those traits.
What happens if a narcissist’s supply is cut off?
Narcissists would have to face their insecurities, let down their fake masks, be with their true selves, and face their toxic selves. This can make a narcissist treacherous and vicious to people around them. Narcissists cannot bear when they lose control of the situation. They might have expected that you would forgive them readily if something is wrong between you both, but when the situation turns another way around and you still ignore them, their first instinct would be to lash out. They can be brutal and say some things that you might not want to hear.
Narcissists tend to collapse and crumple mentally and emotionally without their supply. And when a narcissist becomes volatile, you may notice various changes like,
- They may lose their cool and calmness even in the slightest of inconveniences.
- Their rage might destroy many relationships and can ruin their own mental state.
- They would fail badly to adapt aptly to their social lives and would consider everyone around them as a potential threat.
- They would try to convince their lost source of supply, to get back with them and present themselves as a changed individual. As remorse, repentance, change, guilt, or forgiveness are mere words for a narcissist. Do not expect any of these actions from a narcissist.
In Conclusion
How Long Can a Narcissist go without Supply? This totally depends upon the type of individual the narcissist is. Narcissists usually and most probably always do have a backup supply option in case they lose their supply source. So they do not have to get along without supply as narcissists cannot function properly without their daily dose of supply. But with time and passing age, their charm happens to fade and they cannot lure their source of supply easily.
During such times they have to go without supply. A narcissist would actually not miss you when you leave them or they dump you but they would miss their source of supply with whom they used to boost their thirst for an unquenchable ego. Narcissists would often try to come back into your life until they find a new supply.
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.
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