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Living on high alert: Healing hypervigilance and psychological disorders after narcissistic trauma
Harrold, Juliana
Harrold, Juliana
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t26014_Harrold.pdf
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2026-05
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This study investigates the consequences of a child being exposed to narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) caregiving during the vital early stages of development. This development window includes children of the ages of zero to three. A child’s neurobiological, psychological, and social cognition development is affected by this parenting style. NPD caregiving displays traits of emotional unpredictability, conditional affection, invalidation of a child's emotions, and coercive control. This adverse parenting style forms early childhood development disruptions. These disruptions form dysfunction attachment styles, hypervigilance, and stress response patterns. By combining existing research over developmental neuroscience and trauma psychology, this study aims to further the understanding of constant activation of threat detection in the amygdala and prefrontal regulatory circuits contributes to the increased risk of anxiety disorders, emotional dysregulation and complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). This work emphasizes the importance of trauma-informed early interventions. These interventions support emotional safety, regulation, and increase in improved outcomes of children that are exposed to these early relational traumatic environments.
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Thesis (M.Ed)-- Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Intervention Services and Leadership in Education
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Wichita State University
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© Copyright 2026 by Juliana Harrold
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