Help! I Think My Loved One Is a Narcissist

Is it really narcissism, or something else?

“My husband is a narcissist.” It’s one of the most common things we hear when a family calls Valiant Living for help. Words like narcissist and borderline get used a lot around addiction, and sometimes they fit. But sometimes they don’t, and the difference matters more than most people realize.

In this episode, host Drew Powell sits down with Dr. Alexandra Repke, a licensed psychologist who specializes in the assessment and treatment of personality disorders and their overlap with addiction. Recorded live at the Hope for Healing conference by Lit Path, this conversation unpacks the blind spot that can keep someone stuck no matter how much treatment they get.

Dr. Repke explains personality as a psychological toolkit, and the crucial difference between a personality issue and a true personality disorder. She shares why trauma treatment can actually make a personality disorder worse, what’s really underneath narcissism and borderline personality disorder, and how the wrong label can send a family down the wrong road. Most importantly, she pushes back on the idea that these diagnoses are hopeless. With the right specialist and the right treatment, real change happens. She has watched it, story after story.

In this conversation

• Personality as your psychological toolkit
• Personality issues vs. personality disorders
• Why some people don’t get better in treatment
• Narcissism as a lack of access to equality
• Borderline as a cage of extremes
• What families should do next, and what unintentionally makes things worse
• Why treatment takes 12 to 18 months, and why there’s real hope