Hello everyone, I thought I would drop by and say hi. A friend who works in the same industry I do has been gathering information regarding personality disorders stemming from online, from either people wishing to be like Mrs Hinch for example and having an anxiety or complex when their life doesn't live up to their perfect portrayal or the other extreme of personalities where the social media "personality" becomes overwhelmingly difficult and egotistic. I mentioned to her this site and in particular Ben. I have to say she is fascinated by him, she is using him as an example of extreme ego for some of her projects. I have not had a chance to catch up with her much during the lockdown but she has mentioned trying to contact those around him for comment and contribution so I will let you know how that goes. She does agree that is he is a very extreme case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder and she has worked with a lot of challenging characters in her past.
I have looked at some comments on here and like to give a little personal insight. First point most recently, is Ben gay? I am not sure. With Ben having extreme narcissist personality disorder and his life being very Instagram centered. He will likely wish to attract followers from all walks of life and of all sexual persuasion for his own gratification. He will relish any compliment be it from a man or woman and would more than likely flirt with both genders to stroke his ego further both in person and online. In Ben's mind he may think he is irresistible to all genders and denying one gender a chance to be with someone as desirable as he see's himself will not be acceptable. So Ben may entertain both sexes, whether or not he would actually go through with it would be another matter entirely. That is just my opinion based on what I have seen and read about Ben.
I have noticed recent desperation in Ben's social media postings, he tried to establish himself as a super slimmer and his definitive lack of personality meant he had explore new avenues to gain more of a Instagram following. He has tried desperately to establish himself as a cook, then a family man, then a paid partner with water bottle companies which all seem to have failed and the clutching of straws in Ben's postings are apparent. In my opinion, Ben will no doubt be angry at not gaining sufficient attention which I know will make his home life unbearable for his wife and kids as it did so for me with my husband during his temper episodes. Ben using his children in his instagram posts and tagging foodporn in the photos is abhorrent behavior. It demonstrates a lack of regard for anyone but himself, he is gladly compromising his own children for the sake of a few Instagram photo likes. I think it demonstrates how much Ben's narcissism is out of control.
Ben appears to be increasingly selfish and shallow. He seems to show no empathy or support towards other slimmers including those he pretends to be close to which is all part of NPD. When snaresylad_sw made it onto cover magazines for slimming world as opposed to Ben's small article, I have no doubt Ben would be secretly very angry about this and resentful towards this other Instagrammer, typical NPD traits would be to try and sabotage the threat or competition. Once again I would guess that Ben would have written to slimming world to try and push himself as the cover man and include his photo shoot pictures. Remember in Ben's mind, he believes he is irresistible and desirable and will see no logic in Slimming World's decision to emit him from articles other than Slimming World have forgotten about who Ben is. So he will therefore contact slimming world on a regular basis to promote himself and remind them exactly who he is and what he has done. Unfortunately a deluded narcissist like Ben, will see all slimmers as a potential threat to his "crown"
His silence recently will probably come with some explanation, as a professional I disagree with people citing mental health issues for traits of unacceptable or selfish behavior but I suspect Ben will use some form of this to mount his comeback. He may be seeking guidance or help from a 3rd party to increase his social media presence, someone as shameless as Ben will have no qualms about spending his wife's money for his own personal betterment. Ben will in no way think his poor social media presence is down to the obvious egotistic behavior that will off putting to the majority of normal people, but they will follow him knowing that his posts provide conversation points or amusement based on his spiraling ego. Ben is addicted to social media, he will not accept that he is a narcissist. His personality will be punishing on his wife and children. We won't have seen the last of Ben that is for sure.