An Angry Response to the Estrangement Panic

CW: parental neglect & trauma, ableist slurs I'm an adult child with a narcissistic father. No, I'm not using that terminology lightly; he fits the exact type of individual afflicted with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. To be clear, I don't think having NPD or any other personality disorder automatically condemns somebody to be a bad person; it will complicate the process of navigating interpersonal relationships, like many other mental disorders, but it doesn't make the navigation impossible. That being said, I need to be very clear about this: there isn't an estrangement epidemic, adult children like myself are just tired of having our boundaries repeatedly violated by parents who aren't even trying to adapt. I've had a pretty strained relationship with my father which came to a fever pitch late last year. I asked a close friend to come with me to meet my dad, who was visiting from out of town to give me some food and some money. I'm unemployably disabled as a result of a variety…