r/NPD•
starlight-spark

My relationships feel (mostly) fine now. Am I missing something?

Advice & Support

i'll preface this by saying that i've had extremely bad relationships in the past, and i've done things i regret. i have an opportunity now to move past that and be better, and i want to make the most of it.

nowadays, i have some safety-net strategies to keep people safe around me. i've adopted a strong moral code, and i remind myself that breaking it (even in private where nobody will see) damages my integrity and makes it harder to love me. i've switched from surrounding myself with vulnerable people that i can control to surrounding myself with stable people who can defend themselves and keep me in check. if i get attached to someone vulnerable, i try to introduce them to someone stable, so i'm never left alone with them unsupervised. those strategies seem to help, and it's rare that i hurt people nowadays (at least, that i'm aware of).

i'm also working on more long-term solutions, like trying to step down from my pedestal and genuinely respect and listen to people around me, including people who aren't in my respected bubble. but that's going to take longer, and i haven't had the opportunity to talk it through with my therapist yet, so i don't have much to say about it right now.

for the most part, my relationships feel fine, now. fulfilling, even. i have people that i feel genuinely close to, and there are others who i could make progress with. i also have a few people who openly worship me. they know that they're supply, and they're comfortable with it. it's a treat for both parties. whenever i feel like i need it, i don't let myself have it, because i know that would be a bad habit to get into. instead i talk to someone stable about it, and try to address the root issue. that seems to work, and the hole inside me seems not to be growing anymore.

don't get me wrong, there are still problems - i've been told that i sometimes steamroll conversations, and that i tend to automatically assume i know better than everyone outside of my respected bubble, which can make it hard to work with me on tasks that involve stepping outside of that bubble. i have to work on those issues. but otherwise, things seem to be going well.

i suppose i'm afraid that i'm missing something. that there's some aspect of my behavior that's gonna come back to bite me, or perhaps there's something i should be doing that i'm neglecting. do y'all know of any general pitfalls that i should look out for? are there any red flags in my post that i don't seem to have considered? is there anything you'd recommend i try to work on?

(...actually, in the process of writing this, i realized that i'm talking a lot about how much progress i've made and how great everything is for me now. and i've mentioned that i assume it's great for everyone around me, but i can't say that with certainty without putting in the effort to check. as much as i hope y'all will have helpful advice, i should really be talking to the people who are actually affected by my behavior, too.)

Posted Jul 23, 2026, 10:18 AM UTC

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