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After that, you will need to go to a college or university of your choice and become a degreed mental health professional. After several years of study you will be qualified to diagnose individuals in your professional care with various personality disorders.
Many people, after leaving a destructive and toxic relationship, do a lot of reflecting, research, and rumination about the relationship they just got out of; they want to understand what happened, why it happened, why the other person behaved in such a way, etc. It is a normal part of healing after being in a bad relationship. You may read many books and websites regarding NPD and other personality disorders and mental illness in hopes that understanding will bring some peace and calm to your heart. It is normal to want to understand why someone who you loved, who said they loved you, ended up treating you so badly.
At the end of the day, however, the best help you can find is counseling for yourself, be that a 12 step program, a counselor, clergy person, or psychologist, to understand the patterns in your own life and personality that lead you to tolerate or even encourage toxic behavior from others.
Once you have healed yourself, you will not need a label for the other person or people in your life who are behaving in an antisocial manner. You will have good boundaries and reasonable expectations such that you can be in a relationship with a person, and leave a relationship if the other person is behaving in a toxic, disrespectful, unkind manner and not second guess yourself or stick around waiting for the other person to improve or whatever other unhealthy relationship patterns you may have used in the past.
=====================They were monetized but I am giving them away for free here.
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And if you prefer to pay it forward, I recommend Safe Place as an excellent place to support.
