I am a Psychopath, does that make me a bad person?

I seem to be noticing a trend these days, that having some kind of Psychiatric label is like the new black, something to wear with pride as if it's something really cool to show off to your friends about.

Oooo i have Bipolar (god i hate that term)...Oooo i have Schizophrenia...Oooo I'm a Psychopath. Look at me, arn't i amazing and cool.

No you're not, and you probably don't really have a psychiatric illness either. You probably looked up these things on the interent, thought, "Ooo that sounds a bit like me...OMG i need to see a doctor"....Off to the nearest Psychiatrist, running down a list of what you've read on the internet and saying that these things happen to you. He gives you a label and a bunch of drugs you probably don't even need and off you go with a smile on your face.

You see, people who suffer with real psychiatric illnesses don't tend to brag about it, because it's not really something to brag about. It's not fun, it's not clever, it's not amazing. Quite frankly it's soul destroying, chaotic to the sufferer, their loved ones, family and friends.

Now when a real mentally ill person gets slapped with a label, they hate it, don't want it, you know why? Because now they have this label slapped on them, their very being will now forever be defined by that label, by their loved ones, family, friends and doctors. I was going to say colleagues, but that depends on whether you are actually well enough after your illness presents itself to even go back to work for a very long time.
You find youself alienated because all the people you were once close to have no idea how to behave around you anymore.
Your every move, thoughts, words, actions, behaviours are called into question by everyone because they are waiting for you to become ill again.

[/END RANT/]

Now, OP. If you really think you are are Psychopath, good for you. If you think it's cool to have this label, good for you. But i don't believe it for a second.

reply to post by skitzspiricy


I agree with you. A real person with a mental illness will usually not go public....very rarely. The movie (A Beautiful Mind) is a good example I think of a person who lives with mental illness and the struggles they go through.

On page 5 of this thread...(if you care to)...please read what I wrote.

I would guess autism, Aspergers.

OR

If you have come to this conclusion on your own (I do not buy that you were diagnosed as psychopath) based on your own analysis of your emotional-mental state, I have another guess....

You may be detached from your feelings right now. Borderlines go through this occasionally, as it is a relief and can be a relatively stable state, temporarily.

But anyone can go through this, especially if they have been spending lots of time on the computer.

reply to post by skitzspiricy


I can attest to it not being fun truly suffering from mental illness. I have seen such damage done to my family and friends. I've ruined almost every type of relationship I've had with anyone in my life. Luckily I've got a good woman by my side who can tolerate and understand the way I can get. It's true that mental illness labels are tossed around like nothing these days and people seem proud to say they get xanax and other narcotics to treat an illness they truly don't have. Walk a mile in the shoes of someone who truly has psychotic episodes and you'll never want to use those labels for yourself again.

a reply to: watchitburn

A few years ago I had a relationship with what I thought to be a kind and warm woman. But at a certain moment it came to my attention that she was seeing not one but several other men ...and a compulsive lier. Like any other healthy man I ended the relationship but to this day there are a few things I can not understand.

Trying to understand what she was doing with herself, manipulations, showed no consideration for the feelings of others and other 'qualities'... I came to the conclusion that she must be a psychopath.

When we were having this relationship she said things that I think she really meant.... My question is could she FEEL this for me and told me.. or did she THINK I deserve such words.....

Feeling such affection for someone can last a lifetime... thinking someone deserve such words....can last one day.

How would she react if I would ask her if she has maybe a personality disorder... Would she understand when I ask her these questions in order to understand her "love" or would she feel offended or humiliated?

She is 42.. do you think that she must know at this age she is 'different' than most people?

How do psychopaths honor their promises made..? Just like the normal folks...some do, some don't.. or is there a difference here?

What about responsibillity or guilt? Can a psychopath have the wish to undo the wrong he/she did to someone special and willing to take initiatives to do so...and really worry? Or will a psychopath not be interested and couldn't get warm or cold about the 'victim'?

Maybe an easy question..can a psychopath have compassion?

Thanks..

if you hurt animals or other people intentionally then you are a bad person. do you do that kind of thing?

a reply to: watchitburn

originally posted by: watchitburn
Now before you jump to conclusions, you should know that psychopaths are as different from one another as anyone else. Just because Charles Manson convinced several people to commit murder for him does not mean all psychopaths are murderous.

Contrary to popular belief, psychopaths do in fact have feelings. They are just not the same as you have. I get angry, but my anger is slow to burn and is easily extinguished. Now being a psychopath I am ruled by my ability to reason. For example, I find myself unable believe in something I can cannot see or measure in a quantifiable way.

I apologize, this is not going the way I anticipated. I find myself unable to just spew out my understanding of certain subjects.

But if you are genuinely interested in my point of view, just ask a question, and I will do my best to answer.

These are all things I would answer yes to.

Do you sometimes get a weird sinking feeling instead of producing an emotion?

Have you ever wanted to cry in a real serious situation but cant?

Do you sometime get emotional about your lack of emotion? (Funny I know.)

Do you over analyze everything, including yourself, social expectations, and the production of emotion?

Have you ever heard of alexithymia?

a reply to: dragonridr

Had to reply to this.

It's very easy to know if you're, by definition, a psychopath. You will know you struggle with feeling and identifying emotion. You will know that sometimes you're a dick and you don't care. Just like when you do something good and still don't care much about it.

It's definitely easy to do a self diagnosis and come to the conclusion.

If you don't really care what's going on with people around you, don't really bat an eye when you hear someone has been hurt or even died. Then you are a psychopath.

Just wanted to reply to you since you bumped this older thread looking for answers. Hopefully watchitburn or someone else will weigh in. But really, the answer you need to hear is: Do not waste one more minute of your life on that person.

originally posted by: kosmicjack
Just wanted to reply to you since you bumped this older thread looking for answers. Hopefully watchitburn or someone else will weigh in. But really, the answer you need to hear is: Do not waste one more minute of your life on that person.

I assume this reply is meant for me...?

The true battle between good and evil
Lies Within each and every one of us

Remember God made man and regretted it
Because man was evil in all his ways

a reply to: watchitburn

No. That alone can't make you a 'bad' person.
I scored fairly high on the Hare test--but I have empathy and I really love people. I'm also a good person--well, nobody's perfect ofc, but I don't do bad things to others. Everyone is a bit of a psychopath.

Watch this, you guys! It's really really good.

a reply to: zatara

It's my experience that we can have feelings or emotions. But they are shallow and without much range and never last long. Also remember that those emotions are motivated by self interest.

So while you two may have been on the same page for a time, if she is as you say, then the route she took to get there and her reasons for being there were not to form a lasting bond or anything like that.

More commonly we have trained ourselves to display certain emotions for a given situation. So she may have said and done the right things for a while, but there was never anything there.

I imagine she got bored or decided she had gotten all she would out of you and moved on to the next thing.



As far as responsibility and guilt:

Responsibility is important to me.
But it's in regard to my job, it's my job to lead, develop and train those in my charge. So sometimes I need to give someone money because he's broke and can't feed his kids. This isn't done out of compassion for my fellow man or a desire to do something nice. It's my job that I agreed to do.

I don't know why I would feel guilty about anything.

If any of that makes any sense to you.

a reply to: watchitburn

Thanks, yes..I recognise a lot in her about what you said. Thanks for being spot on..

a reply to: watchitburn

You forgot to answer a question which is important for me to know..

How would you feel if someone you "used" came up to you and say..

I am trying to make any sense of how you used me... can it be that you have a personality disorder and are a sociopath?

Would you think that your "cover" is blown and afraid to be exposed as a psychopath to friends or family? Will you avoid contact with that person because he is "on to you"?

Would you feel offended... would you lie... how would you feel and deal with that question?

It makes you not worth having in a social relationship. You might make a good boss, but a decent guy ... no, without emotional depth time with you is wasted there's little to no meaning for someone with a sense of humanity.

I'd rather not simplify into a good or bad thing, but you'd make a terrible friend for someone like me.

Given that I was formerly married to a sociopath and grew up around a psychopath, I really do question you claim. Sociopaths and psychopaths observe people's behaviors in order to manipulate them for personal gain. If you are what you claim, I can only assume this thread is a form of manipulation. Whether it is attention seeking or even as a form of social experiment.

A lack of empathy means a lack of internal moral direction. I do know that some sociopaths and psychopaths rely heavily on religion and law to keep them from doing wrong as, without those, they wouldn't be able to determine right from wrong.

The ability to see how our actions would affect others and empathise with the pain that our bad choices would inflict on others is, what helps us know right from wrong.

originally posted by: SirClem
First,
never make a thread when you are intoxicated.
Second,
never make a thread when you are intoxicated.
Third,
If you are intoxicated, you are still reading.

I wish I had headed this advice before creating at least half of my threads. Kicking the kicked the physco outta me.

So how do you experoience loyalty in the face of death?
Are you combat arms?

a reply to: zatara

It depends on the situation.

And good example is a girl I had sex with at a 4th of July party. It was a one time thing as far as I was concerned. A month or so later she invited me to a BBQ at her place, which was also her folks place. But whatever, I ended up with nothing better to do that day so I decided to see if it was worth anymore effort and showed up and met the parents and turned on the charm. We ended up being very noisy that night and the next morning. Then I left and didn't talk to her again other than short terse responses to texts or fb posts. Then about a month ago she sends me this two page rant on Facebook calling me lots of names, it was pretty funny I should have saved it.

Anyway, my response was to point out to her that she was an unemployed 30 yr old cat lady(she has two cats) living in her parents attic. And what would possibly make her think she had anything to offer someone as awesome as me.

So in answer, generally the easiest and most effective way to counter a confrontation such as you describe is to turn it around on the accuser so they think they deserved what they got and shouldn't have expected anything else.