Aspergers and Narcissistic Abuse

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I am not formally diagnosed but I strongly suspect I’m on the spectrum. I also grew up with a mother who was a malignant narcissist and a father with addiction problems. I’ve noticed from spending time in narcissistic recovery communities online and even from a few reddit threads, that an unusually high number of people claiming to be victims of narcissistic abuse are on the autism spectrum. Has anybody else noticed this correlation? I wonder if it’s because signs of CPTSD from being abused can mimic ASD. Or maybe people on the ASD spectrum are more likely to be scapegoated?

It is an interesting point you make because a narcissistic person will need someone to pray on, and most people would just not play into the hands of such a person.

I'm sorry you had to grow up in that situation. I didn't live in a household like yours, but I spent 8 years in an abusive relationship.

You'll find there a quite a lot of posts here discussing experiences with narcissists. There are many members here that have both CPTSD and ASD. I think it's unlikely that there are many (if any) people who have been misdiagnosed as ASD in place of CPTSD, because they have many differences and evaluators have to establish that the signs have been present since early childhood. Those that grew up with a narcissist were unlucky to have been born into that situation. Those of us who endured narcissistic abuse from outside sources have speculated we were chosen because of our innocence, our isolation, or our visible vulnerability.

I wonder if part of the reason why there seem to be a large number of autists on the sites you mentioned, is because they have been introduced to disorders such as NPD through their access to care for their own diagnosis? My line of thinking is this: if at some point they were able to access mental health care for a diagnosis, then it's more likely they were able to discover things about people in their life through talks with a professional. People without access to these resources may go through life not realizing they were abused, or not knowing the name of the disorder of their abuser (NPD). So these people would never know to join the groups you mentioned.

I've noticed a lot of those on the spectrum are poor at being self-assertive.
This attracts non-family narcissists and psychopaths.
Vulnerability is like catnip to a cat.

People on the spectrum are favorite preys for narcissist pervert predators.

I think it's more likely that children of narcissists develop c-PTSD.
This can:
(a) be confused with autism
(b) interact with autism to make traits worse or more obvious (for instance greater social avoidance and increased meltdowns)

Yup.
Well known.

Yeah, I got momentarily confused by the question, I thought it was asking whether children of narcissists are more likely to be autistic.

To which I suggested the answer would probably be 'no', although they are more likley to have c-PTSD.

But if the question is whether victims of narcissists (outside the family) are more likely to be autistic than in the general population, that would likely be a 'yes'. As we get targeted.

It's honestly just that when narcs spot an autist they jump on them like a lion on a gazelle.

Think of autistic people as like really easy prey for a narcissist to get their narcissistic supply and less threat of narcissistic injury because an autistic person doesn't really understand how to cause a narcissistic injury deliberately.

A lot of these people you see on forums are autistic because we are like the prime targets. A lot of autistic people are quite innocent and innocence in the eyes of a predator is a weakness.

I have said it many times, if you are autistic get doing your psychology research if you wanna survive in this world.

Joe rogan did an alright podcast with a psychologist like a week ago if anyone is interested, I thought it wasn't too bad.

Yeah. Definitely. Predators like to target people who won't or can't report the abuse. Or someone who doesn't completely understand what's happening to them. They are cowards and opportunists.

I think I'm too arrogant and cynical to fall victim to abuse. If anybody starts trying to push me around, disrespect me or treat me like an inferior, then one way or another I take vigorous evasive action. I'm kind of dedicated to making sure nobody gets away with being a bastard to me.

This is a complicated and complex question.

Lots of abusers including narcissists love preying on people who won't be able to defend themselves. Especially in the moment.

Wow! That is a great question. I know some people who are narcissistic and as an Autistic I am extremely vulnerable to their kinds of abuse. I have really noticed that. I think it's because we, as Autistics are so socially vulnerable. We have no social defenses because we have no ability to understand social nuances. And narcissists are extremely manipulative and manipulation is all about social power play games. Because we can't understand these social games and we don't see them coming, we are perfect targets so it's very easy for them to control us socially and emotionally. And that is what a narcissist seeks, people who are very easily manipulated and socially controlled. I think that is why so many of us fall victim to them.

Please could you send me the link. I cannot take any more predatory behaviour.
I isolate myself because of it.
I am uncertain of my future regarding change of residence/living alone or with people, I want to be prepared so no predator preys on me.

I can testify to the fact that a Narcissist can and will see you as a game or supply if you don't know about narcissism. I didn't and was treated badly and hurt by one.
I have educated myself now and hope I will be able to see the next one.

Im more clearly aDHD than autistic, and I drive narcs f*****g nuts man, lol. Had to disown my family.

I do suspect HF autistics could give me a run for my money in unleashing narccistic rage on ourselves.

My birth Mother is Borderline and probably narcisstic too, and then my stepmom is a straight up narc.

My dad can pick em.





I had Sluggish Cognitive Tempo as a teen, which was mistaken for severe drug abuse, lazyness, and not caring.
My Dr Laura blaring stepmom passed off an illegal eviction at 16 yo as tough love, when it would be child neglect in many US states.

all it did was give me c -PTSD and depression on top of SCT/ADHD. When I got diagnosed at 41 yo I called them out a bit, I guess that was an injury against my stepmom and sister (Narc too), so they started gassing me up, took me till last year to figure out what happened.

I called them out a second time and they all snapped, accusing me of blaming all my problems on them and "hate"