Diagnosed Psychopath. AMA.

[AMAatall]

I have antisocial personality disorder. This is a spectrum. I fall to one extreme of the spectrum which is referred to as psychopathy. I am a 33 year old woman with a professional career. AMA.

I'm diagnosed BPD but see parallels with OPs descriptors and also what others have said about autism in women. Shrugs

That's a shame AMAatall - it's been interesting so far but so many m

I don't think I did diagnose @YourMatesListIsEmpty - I think I offered an alternative suggestion.

I also don’t think you sound anything like a psychopath. I feel sad for you that you think that. People get misdiagnosed all the time. The diagnoses themselves are incredibly arbitrary.

I wish you well.

I don't think you sound like a psychopath at all.

Can relate to basically everything you say.

I've spoken with diagnosed psychopaths and they are not like you at all.

Have you ever thought about a second opinion?

I spoke to a woman who said if she saw a child injured in the road it wouldn't occur to her to help but she's be annoyed at the child crying. Would this annoy you?

@FarFrom

but I think it's fair speculation

Yes. I’m learning quickly on MN that people with any type of neurodiversity are fair game for amateur (and apparently professional) psycho-sleuths.

There is SO much misunderstanding of autism within the general public it’s just disappointing to see professionally-trained people such as yourself joining in the game.

There is no way you could possibly have enough information to diagnose, or, as the case is here, to cast aspersions over another person’s diagnosis, in this instance.

I am well aware that it is not a binary “pee-on-a-stick” type test to diagnose autism; as you should know well, it’s a complex process. I am also aware that many women are given wrong diagnoses such as BPD which is really, really damaging.

But the only discussion you ever see on MN is on the negative aspects of ASD - we’re narcissistic, selfish, manipulative, devoid of empathy, unable to look after our children. ALL of these things have been stated in MN in last 3 months.

And here we are, on a psychopath thread, and autism is mentioned.

We have a lot of plus points too. As a professional you should be cognisant of that fact.

But (yet again) I’m hijacking. I’m out.

I wouldn't put too much weight on personality disorder diagnosises. I've been diagnosed with Borderline personality by one psychiatrist and Anti social personalitity by another. I've since had intensive therapy with a fantastic psychologist and it looks as though I simply have complex trauma

That is very interesting AMA. On one hand I often find socialising quite stressful (and often drink to cope) but on the other hand I do have a very small group of close friends who I feel like I can "be myself" (whatever that means ) with and I don't know what I would do without them. Do you have anyone that you are "yourself" with?

Autistichedgehog - I'm sorry you have felt that that is what's happening here. I have said there is no way anyone can diagnose asd from this. And I am very aware that of course autism does not mean any of the things that you say (nobody else on this thread has said those things).

I am also aware of misdiagnosis and lack of diagnosis and how woefully misunderstood people can be because of this. And yes this can mean that behaviour caused due to difficulty with social communication or mental health problems can be wrongly seen as bad behaviour. That does not mean I equate 'bad behaviour' with social communication difficulties or mental health problems.

Are you sure your psychologist was legit? I can identify with everything you said and have no PD.

Why are you considered a psychopath?

This looked like an interesting AMA and some posters have ruined it by putting OP off. You’ve admitted that your views could only be superficial given the lack of detail (understandably) given, the OP did not state she was looking for any comments on her diagnosis nor is she apparently distressed at all by it so it all seems to serve little point. Maybe let her know that you’ll quit it and she’ll come back?

What makes you (or anyone) a psychopath? Ie is there one or more faucets of your personality that makes you a psychopath as opposed to the various other diagnoses?

How did you feel when you were told?

Do you cry?

Is a real psychopath or whatever you want to call them even capable of recognising they are psychopathic? By the very definition of it it's not possible.
OP, do you think you are superior to everyone and think you are always right?

I have decided to make one last post. On an Internet thread it is interesting that within just a few questions, assumptions have been made. People on this thread do not know me or what I have done or will do but that is ok. Many people here want to diagnose me. Realistically, would I explain in detail every point on Hare’s scale for psychopathy scale? There are many ignorant ‘experts’ here. Please do bear in mind that this is an online forum, I have a job in real life and I am a real person. You are more than welcome to critique my diagnosis but you do not know the truth of my condition. Furthermore, a minority of you are foolish. Because you have just revealed that you know nothing real about psychopathy- only mainstream information. But you can dismiss me as being “autistic” which I’m quite sure is offensive to families of autistic people. Again, this is online and you do not know me or my actions or diagnosis. Also to the person who mentioned criminality- you must do more research. There are some people here who have asked genuine questions and been open-minded. I won’t be coming back anymore but to those women who were genuinely interested - you can be assured that I am non-violent, I love animals and I am a feminist. The actual reason I began this thread is that my brother - who is autistic and has profound learning difficulties- loved Killing Eve. I wanted to show that women with the diagnosis of psychopathy were or could be your everyday girl next door. I could go through every point on the psychopath scale and explain how I meet it but that’s not what this thread was about. This condition is massively understood and in the wake of big drives on mental health, I perhaps expected too much. It comes as no surprise though, that the biggest critics on this thread and the most dismissive people, are “mental health professionals”. Diagnose me when you’ve got my file. Not before.

Does it irritate you when friends have social issues that seem so easily fixed, yet they get over emotional about it for no reason?

Ooops sorry, just read you aren't coming back. Can't blame you, they were annoying me too.

Agreed Narco (and OP) 🙄

Come back! You mentioned Killing Eve what did you think of it?

AMAatall I'm sorry you were put off by the well meaning posts suggesting that you sounded like you had an ASD profile rather than your official DX. I'm not sure what to say except that so much of your posts have resonated with me, and I identified with them hugely, and I know my DD2 would too .... She's in the system awaiting formal assessment for ASD dx. Just something to think about.

You strike me as warm, engaging and compassionate on these posts, which is at odds with how you describe yourself elsewhere. I find it easier to be engaged in small numbers or without direct contact, too.

I think some of you have been watching too many YouTube videos. Not all psychopaths are knife wielding mad people.

The diagnosis is psychopathy has changed quite a lot in recent years and isn’t just a total lack of empathy but is nearer the ability to switch empathy on and off. Not all psychopaths have an evlated sense of self or huge ego. Most aren’t full of charm or huge liars. That’s Narcissitic personality disorder not Psychopathy.

On the surface, Psychopths are lacking in emotion and empathy. Most go unnoticed because they don’t have the same sensitivity as normal people so are less likely to cause crime or hurt people as they simply don’t care. If you were to walk up to a genuine psychopath on the street and punch them in the face, they’d have a very muted reaction. They are pretty dead inside. So in many situations where someone would become irrate becacuse they felt wronged or victimised a psychopath would hardly care. So they are less likely to want ‘revenge’ or have sensitive/overly dramatic reactions to slights from others. They don’t care. but if you have someone with psychopathy who also happens to be sadistic or have certain mental health problems you have a very real problem. Those are the ones you see or read about in the news.

Most Psychopaths are ‘flat’ in character and personality, most lack social awareness. Most have pretty monotone voices or way of speech. yes, and so do some autistic people but We shouldn’t confuse the two.

On paper, when listing a few symptoms it may look like autism but It’s not Autism. And it’s a shame Autistic people get tarred with every brush going.

Come back OP! @AMAatall the rest of us would love you to answer our (non rude and annoying) questions :)

Have you ever met any other psychopaths in real life? Are you able to notice one without actually knowing they are for sure?

Yes, OP - come back! You could educate people on what it is to have this diagnosis.

Please come back OP, this was the most interesting AMA in ages. I’d really like to understand more.

I hope OP comes back.

As a general note to others if one of the first things you think when you see “lack of empathy” is “autism”... you need to educate yourself a bit.

I never understood the whole ‘all psychopaths are criminals’ trope. They’re really not. I don’t even get where people get this idea from. I have very little education in this respect and even I know that the stereotype is just a stereotype. It’s a shame because this was looking like it was going to be a very interesting thread.