Do you Have a Hero Complex?

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I was told as a child that I wouldn't be here if the Titanic hadn't sunk.

Imagine being told this at 5 years old. Imagine the weight of knowing at that early age that thousands of people had to die in order for you to be here.

Yeah....... I have a hero complex...A massive one actually.. I do want to save the world, or at least leave it better then when I got here...... That was a big part of the depression I suffered before I admitted my GID and began working on transitioning.

(Long term goal is to foster LGBTQ kids to get them out of abusive or degrading family situations and just give them a safe environment to grow up in.)

I toyed around with joining the peace corps for a while, but realized that I didn't have much to offer other then bad manual labor. Not much call for an awesome, abrupt, succinct crisis bridge manager in the peace corp.

I think Anne Rice (Via Lestat) summarized it best - A Sinner or a Saint, as long as it's big.

My villain complex only goes so far as having a slight fetish for corrupting the innocent. I.E. I love to be peoples first, or to get them to try something different and new.

When it comes to animals, yes. I've almost had the police called on me when trying to help a poor little snake this kid was threatning to tear the head off of. I won't even let people step on insects. I almost beat the crap out of this kid who would beat his dog and poke his rabbit with a stick to hear it growl. I regret not giving him a knuckle sandwich. People tell me I need to become an ASPCA agent but that wouldn't work because I would get physical on the people I was arresting. Well they deserve it.

Not so much a hero complex, but I often daydream situations where I'm in that sort of role. As someone else noted, I also imagine scenarios where I'm the villain, so it just depends on my mood :p

I do make an effort to do small niceties though, like holding doors open for people or being well-mannered, and it counts for a lot with me when people do the same for me. Not really heroic, but that sort of thing seems to be a rarity sometimes.

Yeah, I know what that's like.

Yes. Incorrigible idealist. Every time I see some injustice or other, it makes me feel like the world's wrong and I should fix it. Kind of what an obsessively neat person must feel when they see a picture hanging crooked.

If I had my wish, I'd be a superhero. But since I'd look horrible in Spandex and hate the publicity, I content myself with volunteer work.

I won't feel like my life made any sense unless I leave the world better than it would have been without me in it.

There's one caution, though, and that's when people take advantage of your tendency to be kind. Sometimes, helping somebody isn't actually going to help them (if that makes any sense). It just lets them take advantage of you more, and probably learn to take advantage of others, too. In that case, it is kinder to refuse and give them a chance to learn. Helping people by giving them what they want is not always a good idea; it can cause codependency, and that's no good for either party. Sometimes giving them what they need means not helping them.

...I guess that means that if you've got a 'hero complex', you had also better have a great deal of wisdom.

Well, you couldn't look much worse than Superbarrio, here...

(For more information on the Reals, Google "real superheroes".)

I think my villian complex ties into my hero complex, because I was reading Death Note the manga and i was on the side of Light all the time...so yeah I want to save the world by killing all the bad people in it. And then ruling the world with my iron fist...which isn't so bad i guess...

Interesting. I, too, have a Hero Complex. Like I just want to do something or be a part of something that makes irreversible, postive change. Is this because in my desperation for acceptance in society, I want to be that kind of person that society accepts whole-heartedly--a hero? Do I crave to raise my status from anonymous and marginalized to well-known and accepted?

But I do dream about being a hero without being recognized as one. Just being a flawed, human being doing the right thing, at the right time. That's good enough for me was well.

But this Hero Complex can become an obstacle. It makes me into a perfectionist, sometimes. It makes me feel entitled to certain things, sometimes. It makes me arrogant, sometimes. It makes me daydream instead of living reality.

I think I just want to know my purpose in this world. Whether or not I'm worth something in the meta-ecology that is humanity past, present, and future. I don't want to be an isolated, non-variable. I have yet to feel the need to give up. But I feel I'm going about it the wrong way and am unable to take any life-changing detours (either out of fear or lack of opportunities)

I think when the Hero Complex gets pathologically defensive, it switches to a Villian Complex. And I am suddenly reminded of this article from New Scientist: Why Superheroes Win

I always feel compelled to help people, often to my own detriment. I didn't realize how long it had been going on either until I opened up my old high school year books a few weeks ago, and there were pretty much two types of messages written in it. The boys all made Star Trek jokes (I graduated in '90, so TNG was big at the time) and the girls all basically said "You're a great guy, thanks for all the help with my homework!"

Amen Brother

I guess... I just loaned my uncle so much money I have a negative bank account balance now Plus my username is based on a superhero alter ego I created in high school. Heh.

I stick up for my best friend all the time, but it usually turns out I've over-reacted...

I believe myself to be Superman. I've never broken a bone and feel unstoppable. My last girlfriend would even call me superman, and got me a superman shirt

I got asthma, but it doesn't stop me from doing anything, unless i get near smoke, whether cigarette or whatever. Smoke is my kryptonite. Dont tell Lex Luthor!

I don't know. I still try to be the gentleman I was raised to be in a lady's presence, does that count?

Most of my early "social education" was from stories and cartoons... I saw people who went out of their way to help others who even the designated guardians and protectors failed, and winning. This, combined with my own feelings of pain and helplessness at many times, made me want to become the person who could've made my life easier had they existed. While other little girls were playing with Barbies and dreaming about Prince Charming sweeping them off their feet or some such, I was playing with action figures and imagining BEING characters like the Power Rangers, or one of the Sailor Scouts, one of the Animorphs or any number of heroes(/heroines, in the rare case) from Disney movies. Ever since I was about 4 or 5, my fantasies have involved protecting or saving people who would otherwise not have anyone to stand up for them.

In real life, the closest I've come is speaking up for people. It's often gotten me in trouble, but there was this feeling of vindication afterwards, that even if I had lost socially, I had won by doing the right thing, and that someone knew that I was on their side despite social pressure to do otherwise. What makes it hardest, though, is when even the victim is okay with what's happening - they've given up on being treated with respect and will actually defend the people who hurt them against outside intervention. That makes the actions of people who hurt them even more despicable, as far as I'm concerned.

Although I'll never end up being a superhero of the fictional sort, I do want to become an advocate for those who otherwise wouldn't be heard or considered.

I became a cop for that very reason...I get to act on my hero complex legitimately, help people, and catch bad guys.

Well i got beaten out of helping people very quickly in secondary school so despite my hero complex if i see some "wrongness" in society I usually walk past it doing nothing because I still have that fear of being beaten up...