Nick Cannon opens up about his healing journey after revealing his diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. Speaking with PEOPLE Magazine, the actor detailed his experiences leading to the official conclusion.
“I still don’t understand it all the way, but I kind of always wanted to get tested for it. I did a bunch of tests,” he shared with the outlet. “I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD. Even as a kid it was dyslexia, but just knowing that I’m just a neurodivergent individual, I kind of always knew.”
He continued to speak to his acceptance of the recent diagnosis adding, “I feel like there’s so many labels out there, but it’s like, to be able to embrace it and say, ‘Look, I’m healing. I need help. Show me.’ I just embrace mental health and therapy in such a strong way,” he says, continuing, “To be able to say I’m an example for others, but also be healing during the self-process works, too.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, narcissistic personality disorder is a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance. People with the disorder need and seek too much attention and want people to admire them and may lack the ability to understand or care about the feelings of others.
Treatment for narcissistic personality disorder centers around talk therapy, also called psychotherapy. The father of 12 first shared that he had been “clinically diagnosed” last month during an episode of his Counsel Culture series.
“When I did get diagnosed with it, because I have no problem with it–it’s a spectrum,” explained the Drumline star. “I think even it starts off with confidence, overconfidence, arrogance… And then that’s when you step into the space of narcissism and in that there’s markers. And when someone has extreme narcissistic behavior disorder, it has things like the lack of empathy, rage, all of those things, I don’t have those.”
Watch the episode above.