The Great Sociopath/Pschopath Thread

[The Outlier]

This is for anyone who has any questions regarding Anti-social Personality Disorder. I, myself, am a sociopath so my answers aren't swayed by Anti-ASPD biases. We are not as bad as we seem!

[BuryYourFlame]

You are on a forum for teenagers, so unless you should be banned already, you are a teenager yourself. This means at best you have sociopathic/psychopathic traits. A hard-line diagnosis of such mental illnesses (I'm assuming you don't object to them being called as such as you did post this in the mental illness section) is not achievable until 18 as a minimum. In fact, being over 18 is a condition of being diagnosed. I realise you may be 19 and diagnosed, in which case there's some things that I would be interested to learn from you. What do you perceive to be the main difference, if any, to how you live your life compared to those without these mental illnesses?

I don't mean to belittle you in this post but self diagnosis can be an incredibly harmful thing. Most teenagers profile as psychopaths, and because most our forum base is compromised of teenagers, starting a line of self diagnosis (most of which will inevitably lead to an idea they do have it) will not be helpful.

Obviously we (I realise I cannot speak for the whole forum, just as someone who has been here a while) have no problem discussing the mental illness and won't prohibit you from doing so, it just has to be made clear to everyone that with these disorders in particular you must be over 18 and go to a doctor/psychologist for a full diagnosis.

Also, I find 'bad' to be a very subjective thing. Wouldn't you agree? :P

I'm quite tired at the moment and not really thinking straight so I apologise if anything came off as offensive.

[Magenta]

You are on a forum for teenagers, so unless you should be banned already, you are a teenager yourself. This means at best you have sociopathic/psychopathic traits. A hard-line diagnosis of such mental illnesses (I'm assuming you don't object to them being called as such as you did post this in the mental illness section) is not achievable until 18 as a minimum. In fact, being over 18 is a condition of being diagnosed. I realise you may be 19 and diagnosed, in which case there's some things that I would be interested to learn from you. What do you perceive to be the main difference, if any, to how you live your life compared to those without these mental illnesses?

I don't mean to belittle you in this post but self diagnosis can be an incredibly harmful thing. Most teenagers profile as psychopaths, and because most our forum base is compromised of teenagers, starting a line of self diagnosis (most of which will inevitably lead to an idea they do have it) will not be helpful.

Obviously we (I realise I cannot speak for the whole forum, just as someone who has been here a while) have no problem discussing the mental illness and won't prohibit you from doing so, it just has to be made clear to everyone that with these disorders in particular you must be over 18 and go to a doctor/psychologist for a full diagnosis.

Also, I find 'bad' to be a very subjective thing. Wouldn't you agree? :P

I'm quite tired at the moment and not really thinking straight so I apologise if anything came off as offensive.

Unfortunately I have to agree. Your introduction thread says you're 13. Diagnostic criteria for ASPD states you must have been showing persisting symptoms since at least the age of 15 and must be at least 18 upon diagnosis. As someone who has had an ongoing personality disorder diagnosis happening since the age of 15 (I'm now 18), I can vouch for the fact that in my experience out of 5 different psychiatrists all agreeing with one another, they still refused to diagnosis until I was 18 just in case they were all wrong. Personality is still forming through the adolescent years and it is impossible to diagnose a personality disorder until adulthood. Anyone who says otherwise has either not kept up with modern science about how the brain and personality formation works or just otherwise should probably have everything they say taken with a grain of salt. These days you will not find many a doctor who will diagnose personality disorders until at least 18, sorry to say.

Given that you're on a site full of teenagers, you won't find many with properly diagnosed personality disorders. It's generally accepted that diagnosing under the age of 18 is a poor decision and leads to more misdiagnosis later in life.

If this comes off as rude, I apologise, but I make it a point to inform others of this given my own very long experience with a personality disorder diagnosis because I've learned a lot and done a lot of research and studying in the three years of waiting.

[The Outlier]

I merely became interested in Psychology a few years ago and started learning as much a I possibly could. I then realized that I showed certain traits. I continued doing research because I wanted to be absolutely sure of this. I know it is a self-diagnosis, but I have checked every possibility, and I am convinced that I do have ASPD.

[Magenta]

I merely became interested in Psychology a few years ago and started learning as much a I possibly could. I then realized that I showed certain traits. I continued doing research because I wanted to be absolutely sure of this. I know it is a self-diagnosis, but I have checked every possibility, and I am convinced that I do have ASPD.

Self-diagnosis is a dangerous behaviour in itself. And personality disorders are not a joking matter. They are serious, as is any mental illness, but there are reasons behind why the diagnostic criteria are in place as they are. Advertising yourself as a sociopath and offering to give advice or talk about them when you are NOT diagnosed by a medical professional is not cool and often inaccurate. Psychiatrists have gone through schooling to get the credentials they do longer than you have been alive. I'm sorry but you cannot say you have a personality disorder or a serious mental illness unless you've had a trained doctor say so. Everyone shows traits of many things. It's when those traits persist throughout life to the point of causing distress and obvious disturbance is when it becomes a disorder. If you're concerned, you should speak with a doctor rather than self-diagnose. Anyone can self-diagnose as anything, doesn't mean they really have it.

Besides, with personality disorders, you rarely know you have them until you're older. Certain traits sound familiar but you often need an objective viewpoint from someone else to properly assess you. It's easier to deny a personality disorder than accept it because you have someone telling you there's something wrong with you at such a deep level, most people don't go searching for help until they are forced into it because their behaviour is not as it should be by the time of adulthood (or so has been the experience of both myself and a close friend with the same illness).