by HelenaMost people with AsPD aren't diagnosed, because, well, they're too damned manipulative to allow some psychologist slap a label on them that'll render them effectively untrustworthy by society..
Yet, amazingly enough numerous people have been diagnosed with it. Go figure.
I hardly knew anything at all about personality disorders before I was diagnosed, let alone AsPD.
I had no idea that I would even be diagnosed with it.
I didn't mean you've adopted a well-crafted persona of sociopathy. I meant that, if you are a sociopath, then you've adopted a persona on these forums that is categorically not a sociopath. To what end this would achieve, I'm not sure, but I'm sure that a sociopath could have a use for it.
I can convince a shrink I'm a socio, too. I can also convince them I'm borderline, ADHD, narcissistic, pick whatever disorder you like. That's not really evidence of anything. I just don't think a socio would have real need to convince anyone of anything, which you seem to in spades. I'm more interested in what you say than whether you are or aren't a sociopath.
I think what you fail to realize and that they aren't manipulative enough to not be diagnosed. There are very few people diagnosed with AsPD on psychforums and this website but what they are looking for a person with any PD by almost default does not realize that their behavior is considered wrong to the levels that they usually are.
Hence why they are diagnosed.
People with AsPD and other personality disorders and up inpatient all the time. Every person I can think of on here or on pf that has been diagnosed with AsPD has been hospitalized at least once or multiple times.
But Thrill over here claims that she has never been hospitalized though....which is strange.
Interesting observation.
Yet memories contain as much of the grainy truth as they rely on the flawed responses that we provide to the situational development that defines what any given reality reminds us of.
No experiment is flawed as long as the results lead to another experiment.
Nothing cryptic here.
Just employing a playful demeanor for you to enjoy.
Of course you are.
Everyone deserves to be me.
Even God (I find that term to be obnoxious. Isn't a "physiologically pressured into ethereal retrospective and perpetually drowning in its own refuse and secretions entity" a better term?).
Then again, perhaps I'm you.
Whether or not I am a sociopath/psychopath remains to be seen. But in answering the above question, I would actually be interested in hearing a bit of insight.
As a little history to myself; I am 21 years old, I've never had any massive violent tendencies or urges. I am currently in college study both computer science and business management. I chose both these majors due to the extreme mental challenge of them. But I have been disappointed. They aren't hard and I have more issues staying focused because I'm bored than anything. I've tried increasing my work load to occupy my mind more. But it's seems that the more it (my mind) has to focus on the easier it becomes.
Now as to a more personal level, I do enjoy normal things. But I'm not normal, or so I found out a few years ago. At one point I believed everyone looked at things and situations the way I did; analytically with the ability to completely when they so desired to block out the emotional reaction to a situation. Although I can choose to acknowledge emotions and act on them it's far easier not to. And my (sub-conscious) initial responses to situations are analytical not emotional. As I began to mature I started noticing differences between myself and other children my own age, the more I noticed the differences the more focused on those differences I became. Learning how to mask what I thought, how I reacted so that my reactions, thought patterns and actions were mirror images of children around me. Naturally with my own special twist of course, as you cannot properly imitate and be considered typical without some form of geniality.
While I was growing up, my teenage years, I found considerable challenge in understanding and properly and correctly discerning people reactions to things or what they would do before they would do it. It was a game to me, and a fun one because all people are different. Although I most certainly acquired more insight into people I found that I had already considerable insight into people even at a very young age.
This I would use to manipulate people and lie if that's what I so desired. It was easy and if I got caught I would shrug it off take my whipping that I knew was coming and figure out what I did wrong. (I would typically test my wits against adults as I found kids my own age very irksome and easy to fool) I enjoyed this not to hurt anyone, as I have never had a true desire to actually hurt someone just to hurt them. Granted if someone gets in my way I have and never had any issues with putting you down and in a manner where they will not try it again. But rather I would do this to test myself, test my mental abilities as I have and continue to see the human mind as the most interesting, misunderstood and arguably the most powerful thing on this planet. And it would always be against people I viewed as equals or more intelligent than I was.
But this all changed to a point at about age 18, I still love debating, and honing my talents as a debater, (and occasionally I will use an emotional manipulation tactic if I find myself losing on factual and classical debate styles…. I hate losing, and I will bend the rules where needed when needed to avoid losing. Although I would be the first to tell you that you can learn as much if not more from losing to someone than you can by beating them) but the desire to manipulate other people is far from prevalent in my life now, could I do it? Uh, yes without question and subtle on some level I guess I still do it, typically when I am first meeting someone I will ask strings of questions or do outlandish things and gauge their reactions and so on. But I thrive on a challenge and I prefer to beat people at their own game because as I have gotten older I have found that playing on my home field isn’t as much fun as it once was. I am without a doubt a perfectionist, I will set high goals and should I reach them they suddenly are not good enough.
But more than anything I love a challenge, give me a challenge and a few months and ill master it, I will obsess over it and once I have "mastered it" typically I will move on.
Emotionally I'm very cold, highly none responsive, but over the years I've learned what kind of balance of emotions I need to show for people not to realize I don't actually need to act on them.
By nature I'm a loner; although I'm more than comfortable around people with a natural ability to break down people's walls and put them at ease, if given the choice I'd rather be alone. On the topic of social interactions, I have a very select group of friends, all older than myself and all with a tested IQ of over 190 (not that that means anything anyway as I'd argue that intelligence cannot be accurately measured by the standard IQ tests people take)
My largest issue is that given the right time, place and setting I can portray whatever psychological personality that I want to which is also a lot of fun sometimes. I am not a normal individual that I have no question about and I have known that since grade school. But as to being sociopath/psychopath I have not cared enough to actually look into it enough to know if I would be a primary sociopath/psychopath (Based on my findings I find it highly unlikely that I would be a secondary). And any insight would be interesting to read.
I've read most if not all the posts on here, at least the ones that were not talking about pizza or underage girls. Along with similar forums as it's somewhat of an annoyance that I'm able to tell what classmates I've never spoken to are like without so much as speaking a word, but yet I cannot get quite a grasp on what I am personality wise. But up until recently as I have begun to look into the psychological aspects of people on a deeper level I have not cared enough to try to accurately classify myself if such a thing is truly possible.
I've never been good at personality tests because I know all the answers and I'm always unsure if what I'm answering is legitimately me or some façade and I'm answering because that's what I want to be perceived as.
Basing on Hare's check list I am highly sociopathic/psychopathic; but then I doubt I am a good judge of my own character or personality as we as humans have a natural tendency to either play up or down play our personal abilities and traits.
But, shrugs I'm not sure, never been diagnosed, do not plan to be, and quite honestly it would not bother me if I was a sociopath/psychopath. <<< That might come across as ignorant, but the reality is this
I have lived quite normally this long, and knowing would not change who I am. I know I am different… well I do now that I’m older, and no one has to sit me down and give me a paper test for me to know that. As to the actual psychological diagnostic of myself, I have my guesses, but I am not a professional certified mind reader <<insert smartass comment here>> but rather than going to some arrogant know it all and sit on his couch and toy with his stupid questions I thought I would do a bit of crowd sourcing first.
So again I would love opinions or insight.
Thank you.
Cata.
tl;dr:
"I'm smarter than everyone and desperately want to be a special snowflake. I can turn emotions on and off!"
If you're not bothered by whether you're a socio, and you're not seeing problems in your life that might be rooted in your personality, then why do you care about opinions from armchair psychologists, and why would you even consider diagnosis? But if you really want a shiny PD so you can have some further vindication of your special differentness...check into borderline or narc. Your mutable personality and ability to confuse even yourself on whether it's all a grand façade leads me to borderline, but that's a distant second to your delusions of superiority.
By the way, I'm not mean, you just bug me. So here's my actual advice: stop attention-seeking and do cool things with your life. If you're bored, do something harder.