“Having a rather narcissistic romantic partner does not have to automatically sound the death knell for your own mental health,” Lautenbacher explained. “We did not detect clear trends of worse (or better) mental health for individuals with increasingly narcissistic partners.”
But there’s a big caveat to that, he pointed out: “Keep in mind that we are not talking about Narcissistic Personality Disorder here – the results are restricted to non-pathological, interindividual differences in narcissism.”
The thing is, we all have some levels of narcissism, and not every person with narcissistic traits necessarily has full-blown narcissistic personality disorder (the clinical diagnosis for extreme narcissism). As licensed therapist Alyssa Mancao, LCSW, previously told mbg, “It’s very common for most people to demonstrate narcissistic behaviors.” She adds, “These behaviors come and go and do not last very long, nor do they have significant impairments in your relationships.”
None of this is to say that you should tolerate unacceptable behavior from narcissists in relationships, of course. Narcissistic abuse is real, and it’s important to know the warning signs and to end a relationship with a narcissist if abusive behavior emerges.
That said, studies like these suggest it is possible to date a narcissist without the dynamic necessarily becoming toxic for your mental health.
