Diagnosed narcissist explains three manipulation tactics that he thought were normal behaviours

A diagnosed narcissist has revealed the three manipulation techniques which he used to believe were 'normal behaviours'.

Researchers estimate that between one to five percent of the UK population are either diagnosed with or meet the criteria for Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).

However, this doesn't mean the rest of us are immune to manipulative or selfish actions, with US content creator Jacob Skidmore - who goes by The Nameless Narcissist on social media - explaining three manipulative techniques he previously thought we normal behaviour and the reasons why.

Intentionally using 'I shouldn't have said that' in conversations

We've all been in a situation where we've gone to divulge a piece of juicy information, only to realise at the very last moment that it's absolutely something we shouldn't be sharing.

Cue the awkward back-and-forth of 'I really shouldn't be telling you this' and 'well you've brought it up so you may as well finish'.

However, for Skidmore, this interaction was less of an accidental slip-up and instead an intentional move to reveal his true feelings during a conversation.

Explaining why he'd do this, Skidmore added: "Obviously you're going to get curious and keep asking me, so it doesn't seem like it's my fault if I mentioned it."

Tricking people into thinking you're lying

The next example of manipulative behaviour includes tricking people into thinking you're lying when you're actually telling the truth.

Using a similar example of hanging out with a hypothetical group of friends, he explained: "Let's say you, Adam and Lilith are hanging out... and you accidentally break Lilith's TV. She doesn't know which one of you did it so she's asking."

The creator then explained how he would 'pretend' to be bad at lying when taking the blame so the other person would get the blame and he would get away with it.

"I always kind of assumed most people got caught in their lies intentionally because they weren't actually lying," Skidmore added.

Intentionally distancing yourself from others

Explaining that this move was more about 'self-protection' rather than to get something from others, Skidmore explained that he used to distance himself from others and pretend not to care about them as a method of self-protection.

"I was convinced that if people knew that I cared, it would be leveraged against me and I felt like nobody could care about me in a genuine way," he said.

"I thought everyone kind of acknowledged that affection like that was kind of a weakness."

The statements left viewers with a lot to think about, with one person noting that intentionally distancing yourself can be a form of avoidance caused by trauma, while others said they could relate to aspects of these behaviours.