Hi,
I am a 24 year old woman who was diagnosed at age 19 with ASPD aka sociopathy/psychopathy, Ask Me Anything.
How do you feel in a situation where you know you should feel more empathetic? Like if someone close is having a bad day? Do you feel frustration on the person getting “annoying” or something? This question stems from a stereotype so forgive me if it’s a “stupid question” :)
Also, what does it mean to you that someone is “close to you”?
This isn’t a stupid question at all. Also, yeah pretty much. It’s like, “what do you want me to do about it?”. If I am in a situation where I have to empathize with someone then what I’ll do is listen to their problem and console them when I can.
So with little to no empathy, which career path are you going to pursue?
A. Lawyer
B. Sales
C. Politics
D. Religious/Scam
E. Criminal
F. Other
A doctor or vet. I always see doctors/vets talking about how hard it is to deal with other peoples emotions. Plus it pays well.
OP missed a trick here by not simply responding to every question with “fuck off”.
Not really a trick. It’s more being rude if anything.
Do you prefer cats or dogs?
Cats
Do u get a kick out of causing pain for others. If so what’s your favourite method for inflicting pain physical or spycological?
No because I’m not a sadist. I don’t know where you got that idea from?
Well if u don’t care about others then why not? What’s stopping you?
There’s an interview with a psych doctor who’s been diagnosed with sociopathy you might be interested in. She’s married with kids.
Thank you, I’ve heard of this woman before. I like what she does but the amount of slack she gets online is insane. Every time she does something all the comments are about how she’s “manipulating you” and how “sociopaths are evil”. The way our society demonize cluster B personality disorders is deplorable.
Slack is when someone get’s off lightly.
Flack is when they’re unduly attacked.
I can care about people. I love and care about people like my friends, siblings, boyfriends and parents. I can feel love but I just can’t empathize with them. Even if I didn’t care about others I wouldn’t gain anything from hurting them the way a sadist would.
What are some stereotypes of ASPD that you find to be true (or not true)?
That we’re all serial killers. ASPD isn’t going to make you a serial killer more than anyone other personality disorder. Also, that we’re all abusers and can’t be trusted.
Honestly there isn’t that many accurate stereotypes about people with ASPD. It’s been so demonised in the media and pop psychology. The Idea people get of ASPD usually comes from sensationalist movies or TV shows.
Can you pick a specific well-known depiction of ASPD and compare what is similar and dissimilar to your experience?
A common example is Patrick Bateman from ‘American Psycho’. From what I’ve seen Bateman is obsessed with how he’s seen by others and is prone to having power fantasies. He seems more NPD to me. I don’t really care how I look anymore then any other woman does.
Do you think you’ve become more aware of ASPD traits in other people?
Not really. Having a mental illness doesn’t make you a professional on that mental illness anymore then breaking a leg would make you a professional on broken bones.
I think a lot of TikTok influencers, apparently experts of ADHD, would get mad at that comment 🤣
As they should. TikTok is a goldmine then it comes to $hit mental health content.
Have you shared your diagnosis with anyone? If so, did they react as you expected?
No, I haven’t. It’s far too stigmatized to just casually admit something like that. Maybe if they were really close to me.
What made you decide to get a diagnosis?
It was recommended by a counsellor from my old school. Plus, I thought it would be interesting to learn about myself.
What time is it
17:18
How does remorse/guilt work for you? Is it just absent? A vague concept? Or is it fundamentally there but really easy to ignore?
A vague concept is the best way to put it. I can understand the concepts on a intellectual level but I just don’t feel them. Like, I can understand regretting something because it hurt someone else but I don’t know how you can feel someone else’s pain. It’s the same for guilt. ASPD gives you an extremely short time preference. If I make a bad decision once I’m done dealing with the consequences I don’t really think about it. The future is in the future so why really care and the past is the past. It’s for this reason I don’t feel anything for the people involved.
I understand this isn’t a good way of thinking about things. I understand I need to improve myself to stop these toxic patterns of thinking. I now make that I not only learn from my mistakes but put what I learnt into practice.
I may not feel empathy or guilt like a normal person but I can learn my short commings and work on them and at the end of the day that’s what being a good person is all about.
1 horse size duck, or 1000 duck-size horses?
Neither, I’m not vaush.
Whats the worst thing you’ve done to someone or something?
We’ve all done bad things. Nobody is perfect. When I was 14 me and two other friends decided to get revenge on a teacher for getting me in trouble the week before. So we decided to trash that teachers car. That same night I dared my friend to drink a cocktail of vodka and cough syrup. She ended up throwing up. In the end I was made to pay the teacher for a new car and got suspended for a week.
What’s the best thing you’ve ever done for someone?
I gave my mom 20$ for her birthday.
How did they surmise you had the condition?
