8 Things That Terrify Narcissists To The Core

Have you ever thought about what can terrify a narcissist? Well, if you believe that there isn’t anything in this world that scares narcissists to death, you’re wrong. Although narcissists look strong, resilient, and invincible on the outside, they have their own fears too.

They have inflated self-esteem which makes them think they’re the best and most important.  Narcissists meticulously create an image of themselves as smart, loving, and attractive people. What’s even more important is that they need others to acknowledge and praise these characteristics. If you’re a good source of supply to them, they’ll stick to you. And that’s their biggest fear – that you’ll stop boosting their ego or even worse, you can tarnish or ruin the image of their perfect self.

They’ll do whatever it takes to disperse their fears that their ‘perfect’ self can be destroyed and their imperfections exposed.

These are the 8 things that terrify narcissists to the core:

1. Being the butt of a joke.

A narcissist would rather choose to be dead rather than having someone making fun of them. Their sense of humor only works when others are the subject of a joke. For example, if you fall and injure yourself or say something silly, they won’t stop laughing. Empathy is a word they don’t know of. Yet, they can’t stand when jokes are made at their expense. To prevent this, they start acting seriously and immediately take a defensive position. The fear that you might make fun of their ‘perfect’ image is what paralyzes them.

2. Being out of the spotlight.

They believe they’re entitled to all the attention and admiration in the world without having to do anything to deserve it. If someone smarter, more confident or beautiful than them appears, they feel immediately threatened by them. They don’t want to share their dominant position with anyone else.

3. Being rejected and abandoned.

Rejecting or abandoning a narcissist is like a punch in the stomach to them. They aren’t used to that sort of treatment. When you reject a narcissist, you negate their ‘perfect’ image as well and there isn’t anything worse than that to them. The only thing they know and have to offer the world is their untrue self. So, what purpose will they have in life if you negate the person they want to be?

If they find out you want to reject and abandon them, they’ll do whatever it takes to make you stay. So, be prepared to endure their unbearable fits of rage, threats, and insults.

4. Being ignored.

Receiving constant attention is extremely important to narcissists. If you ignore them, their ego won’t get anything from you. That’s why a narcissist would rather choose to have negative attention than no attention at all. They can easily provoke your anger and negative reaction to them but at least they’ll get attention. If you ignore them, they’ll take this as a sign that you’re unaware of their importance, undeniable intelligence and beauty. If you fail to acknowledge and admire their greatness, they’ll feel this as a sharp knife being stuck right in the middle of their chest.

5. Being disrespected.

When narcissists disrespect, belittle, and make others feel inferior to them, everything is all right. Yet, when someone disrespects them, then it suddenly becomes a tragedy. A torture. A narcissist is terrified to the core that their inflated sense of self-value can pop like a balloon. To stop you from disrespecting them and make you boost their massive ego, they’ll start pretending they’re loving, generous, and too sensitive. They’ll lie blatantly, use lame excuses, and gaslight you so as to manipulate and lure you into playing their devious mind games.

6. Being exposed.

Deep down, narcissists know how badly they treat and abuse other people. Yet, they don’t want to be held accountable for their wrongdoings. If you try to reprimand them for their wicked behavior, they’ll start lying, gaslighting, blaming, and shifting all their imperfections onto you so as to make them look flawless and invulnerable.

7. Growing old and losing success.

Narcissists are afraid of all the things they can lose when they grow old. They’ll lose their good looks, money or job, have health problems, and less personal success. They’ll lose control of their power. Losing all this means failing to get the attention and admiration they focus on and want to receive all their lives. Without them, narcissists are nothing. They’re just a big void.

8.The notion of death.

Who isn’t afraid of death? Yet, narcissists are terrified to even hear the word. Death scares them because it means an end to the great image they aim for and try to create all their lives. They know when they die, they won’t be dominant, the smartest, most beautiful and powerful people among their family, friends, and colleagues. They are afraid that there’s a small possibility they failed to their best and people will forget about them. At an older age, some of them start reevaluating their wrongdoings and how badly they treated others and this makes them fear they’ll be punished for it in the afterlife.

Image: damir hallaçi