For children of narcissistic parents - have you had/do you have physical symptoms of distress?

CM, I'm smacking my head with the keyboard after hearing that one!

You should have seen the faces of all the other characters… It was jolly funny. Alf Garnett was played by Warren Mitchell, a Jewish actor (from London I think) who loved every second of the role. Iconic.

Very old thread but had to respond to original question. Yes, from childhood I've had eczema, chronic anxiety and depression, migraines, GERD, repressed memories of childhood abuse, and episodes of depersonalization. Should I attribute all of these problems to my narcissist? Probably not. Some of them? Very likely. Narcissistic mothers: the "gift" that keeps on giving.

((((((((Amber))))))) I think likely most of them are due to your childhood with a narcissistic mother. Yeah, it keeps giving.

Oh yes absolutely! I've been there and I can tell you a thing or two about having had unexplained chest pains and even stress related seizures many years ago. As soon as I eventually found the problem and addressed it with God's help, the physical issues quickly ceased. A friend of mine was swindled out of lots of money after somehow being coerced to start dating this narc short for narcissist. I didn't know what all was going on secretly, but there came a time he was prescribed a Medicaid power chair. After he was measured, interviewed and finally got the chair, soon afterward I saw his girlfriend suddenly had her own chair but something about her getting a chair just didn't seem quite right but I didn't know why. It makes me wonder if her multiple strokes she eventually had actually had something to do with the narc and the stress he put her through. You can only wonder. He milked us financially dry and didn't even care about our financial needs. I can go on and on and on about not only what I experienced but also what I saw. I never knew he was living very large at his girlfriend's expense, and spending all of his Social Security on tobacco only to turn around and get about $400 in monthly gift cards from his aging parents. I didn't know the relationship between he and his parents, but I can just about bet you now he was probably pulling one over on them. I don't know just how many people he had under his thumb, but he's dead now. Chain-smoking had something to do with his death, but I'll bet you a nickel his new supply probably gave him heroin or some other illegal drug because they died only days apart with him going first.

The human body is a wonderful thing but it was never designed to live in definitely under abuse forced upon it. It can heal itself to a point, but it was never designed to indefinitely endure smoking. The more you smoke, the more damage is done and it's done more rapidly. By quitting though, you now allow your body to start repairing that damage. The narc who also chain-smoked actually didn't care about himself and even had a death wish. He said he already knew he was going to hell and didn't care about the one and only secret on how to avoid it. He said he was at peace with burning in hell forever, but I immediately knew he really didn't know what he was talking about because he didn't have before realization of what hell really is and how bad it would really hurt. I tried to help him realize that if you get a burn on your physical body, you can pull away if you get burned on let's say a hot stove. In hell you can't pull away, but despite my effort to make him see this, he just shoved it off. It's sad when anyone dies and we know they went to hell because we now know that in cases like mine, the narc now regrets everything but it's too late for him, he'll one day be thrown into the lake of fire. He likely hurt many people throughout his whole life and now instead of accepting God's gift of salvation and forgiveness, he'll have to pay for his wrongs forever.

A fair warning to all narcs out there:

I've seen the tables turn on narcs, I know you won't get away with it. What you do to others now will eventually catch up to you because your sin will find you out. The stress you put on your victims now is actually hurting them physically. Taking money from them means taking food out of their mouths and the mouths of their children. Instead of taking money, you should actually be giving back even more than you took. I saw what happened to my narc dad who wouldn't provide for his kids. He eventually developed Alzheimer's and a fraudster with a shady past ended up taking advantage of him, and wrongfully gaining everything, leaving me as his only surviving blood relative to fight this mess. To those narcs who won't provide for their own, the tables will turn because many of your victims will end up winning in the end when they get everything you have in certain types of cases.

To those victims, take steps to leave the narc behind, they won't change. Take note of how things were and how they've treated you all this time and look where you are now. They haven't changed. I especially say to those who have been with your narc for much longer, what are you waiting for, a change that will never come? They won't change, just look back on the years you've been with them and you have your answer. You feel drained because the narc in your life is kind of like a black hole. You feel like you're putting all of your treasures into a black hole but never receiving anything back. You feel if you give more you'll eventually get something, but that's never the case. Black holes are called black holes for a reason, and the narc is like a black hole and even a dry well

To the poster who mentioned asthma:

Speaking as an asthmatic myself, my particular type is post pertussis cough variant asthma. I never smoked a day in my life but there are times when I build up the medicine in my system and start feeling great to the point I can back off somewhat or even completely. There are times I can go for a long spans without my albuterol base medications until suddenly it hits without warning. I started feeling ill with a fever one night and was able to successfully break it within hours. I then started developing a worsening cough I thought was just a bad cold coming on only to realize I need to get on the nebulizer because this was not just a bad cold, it was a bad asthma attack. The honeymoon stage of asthma sometimes ends suddenly without warning, whereas other times it comes on gradually and starts ever so small until one day you have an all out dangerous attack. I can only speak from experience with cough variant asthma since it's post pertussis. Whooping cough causes lasting affects. 

Your asthma may have seemingly quit, but what is your asthma really brought on by the narc or is there an actual underlying medical condition you don't know about? Pay close attention when your asthma seems to stop, you don't know when it may suddenly strike again. You may be blessed enough to even go for years without an asthma attack or the need for your medicine but sooner or later real asthma will catch up with you, you can bank on it. I've been there too many times and been tricked into thinking my asthma went dormant, which may happen for a time but sooner or later, it catches up with you. Pay special attention and listen to your body for warning signs. Asthma is a life-threatening condition that can actually kill you if you're not careful. Avoid triggers as much as absolutely possible. My main trigger is smoke, even secondhand smoke. I can even be passing an area where there's smoke in the air from a grill, bonfire or some other smoke producing source. If it don't hit me immediately, it will later on, and depending on how much smoke I accidentally breathe then will depend on how hard my body must work to cough those toxins out. It seems like each time it hits me, it hits me harder and harder each time. Asthmatics, avoid triggers by all means, you never know when you may end up in the ER. For those of you with  post pertussis cough variant asthma who happened to be non-smokers, you're probably very prone to respiratory problems like bronchitis. Not just air irritants can cause problems, but also the cold winter air can cause bronchitis if you must commute without a car during those bitterly cold months. If you're in a position to just stay in all winter, do it, just don't go out unless you're going by car. If you live alone and have stocked up on your shelf staples like canned goods and similar items and even other needed supplies, the only time you should ever have to go out is when you need something like milk, eggs or some other item that needs refrigeration. Other than that, it's best to not even open your door all winter.  The last two winters I ended up pretty much staying in and not opening my door much at all due to my asthmatic condition. This past winter though I had bronchitis because I had to navigate somewhere nearby without a car because I currently have no car. There need to be more programs available to get people in our particular types of situations into cars due to medical need but the problem is there's just not enough of those programs and card owners out there giving cars to people who most need them and it's not just those with children but singles with medical  conditions who happened to have no one else helping them. When you have asthma, you actually need to take serious precautions to keep up with your breathing treatments and to protect yourself and your environment by avoiding triggers as much as absolutely possible. If  you happen to live with a smoker and they won't take it outside, you have the option to pack up and leave if the residence is not in your name. If it is, you need to put your foot down and take legal action if necessary because asthma is a very serious life-threatening condition that can actually kill you

The answer os clear to me- if the person who is so busy earning your justified dislike and antipathy was ANYONE ELSE but your mother, you would avoid them- wouldn't you? So DO JUST THAT- I would, God knows- an inconsiderate person is a pain in the arse by anyone's lights, whoever they are....I can't see the problem with avoiding a blackmailing tyrant.