If your partner constantly brags about their accomplishments, and always knows how to do everything in the "best" possible way, you may be dealing with a narcissistic partner. There are many tells a partner with a narcissistic personality disorder can give out, and this article is going to highlight three such tells. The first is that a true narcissist will only talk about themselves, the second that they need constant praise and compliments, and the final tell is that they can be overly demeaning towards other people in public.
One of the first warning signs of a narcissistic personality is that they love to talk about themselves. The subject matter doesn't matter at all - some days they may complain about the problems in their lives, while the other they may talk about how much fun they've had and what they are planning to do next. While it is normal to have some degree of conversation about yourself, it is not normal if the conversation is completely one-sided.
Another interesting aspect about narcissists is that they are going to appear bored at the times when you talk about yourself. Any time you try to talk to them about some personal problem you have, they are only going to acknowledge that you are talking to them, but they won't provide any type of deep, personal feedback.
A narcissist must have a certain amount of "supply" during the day in order to properly function. Narcissistic supply is basically words and sentences that are designed to praise them and comfort their ego. A true narcissist can never get enough compliments, which is why many of them can keep on talking about themselves for hours on end. If your partner only gets excited when you praise them, that could mean that they are a narcissist.
If your partner is in the higher-end of the narcissist spectrum (there are certain degrees of how narcissistic a person can be), they may even become cold and distant towards you (or even break-up) if you stop complimenting them. Not giving any praise to your partner could be a good way to test them if they are a narcissistic or not.
If you've ever been in public with your narcissistic friend or partner, then you would have no doubtlessly witnessed them be extremely demeaning and ignorant towards others in public. For example, a waiter may give you the wrong order - instead of simply returning him to change the order, a narcissist may use the occasion to argue and yell towards the waiter like he intentionally gave you the wrong order.
Another interesting aspect that many narcissists show is that they can also be extremely sensitive and overactive at times. Many people may feel bad when the narcissist appears to be sad because something means was said about them, but that is just a manipulative tactic in order to get under your skin. Other times you may also notice that the narcissist may overact to some minor event with a flurry of emotions, and at those times you may not be able to appeal to their reason.
