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BYNICOLE
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01 Feb 2015, 10:38 am

I had did several test on whether if I meet the diagnostic of psychopath. And all the result turns out the same. 10/10 says that I met the diagnostic criteria for psychopath. Yes, I have a total lack of empathy. My empathy test failed badly and they suggested me to get a treatment as soon as possible. I can say that, I can barely feel anything.

Sometimes I really thought that I'm born without sympathy and empathy. When my dad got into an accident, I can't seems to put on a sad face or to be as worried as my other family members are. I can't feel a single thing in my heart. No aches, no nothing. Same goes to my mom when she were admitted into the hospital and needed urgent operation, I'm not worried, I'm not scared, I'm not anxious, neither am I overthinking about if her operation will goes well. I couldn't feel anything. Sometimes, I really hoped that I could change my soul with someone for a day just to feel how worries felt like, how empathy feels like and how sympathy are like.

Few days ago when I saw a granny being wheeled over on a newspaper, I slightly laughed at the image. I know it sounds creepy. I didn't mean to do it. It just came out :? When my friend told me about when their grandparent passed away, I can't seems to feel the sadness in her and I couldn't comfort her as well.

To sum everything up, I just don't feel the pain that my friend or family would had suffer from, I can't seems to understand anyone's feeling. I can't feel anything. It is as if my heart is numbed and when I said sorry or thank you, I don't mean it.



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01 Feb 2015, 1:26 pm

As long as you don't go out and hurt other people, you're not a bad person. Also, I think you can use the term "sociopath" to keep reactions from being as negative when you tell other people. I've referred to myself that way multiple times in the past.
Personally, logic hinders my sympathy capabilities too. I usually tell people "we all face this stuff in our own ways" (for deaths and tragedies) and they'll leave me alone about my obvious lack of caring. It's technically true, but they make assumptions from that.
There are practical upsides. The foremost is the ability to continue working even in the face of negative events. I've saved a few people from drowning while others panicked.
I'd say there is nothing wrong with you. Only your actions can be deemed as good or bad. What defines us is our capability to restrain our own impulses. I may consider how to fight a person, but I don't start fights. The only way you become less than human is if you give in to desires of hurting others.


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Jensen
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01 Feb 2015, 5:06 pm

I´d say, that you might benefit from some form of therapy. The connection may wake up.


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nvldmovie
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01 Feb 2015, 5:22 pm

wow.



KateCoco
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01 Feb 2015, 6:12 pm

Does it concern you that you feel no empathy? If you are concerned - and the fact your only post on this website so far is to ask this question suggests you are worried - then you're unlikely to be a psychopath. Psychopaths are not worried that they're different from others. (That's what I've heard from the experts) Is it possible your lack of empathy comes from depression?

I am curious why you have asked this question though on an ASD website? Psychopathy and autism are two separate disorders.



CockneyRebel
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01 Feb 2015, 6:16 pm

You might want to talk to someone about this, if your worried about it.


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olympiadis
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02 Feb 2015, 12:56 am

BYNICOLE wrote:
I had did several test on whether if I meet the diagnostic of psychopath. And all the result turns out the same. 10/10 says that I met the diagnostic criteria for psychopath. Yes, I have a total lack of empathy. My empathy test failed badly and they suggested me to get a treatment as soon as possible. I can say that, I can barely feel anything.

Sometimes I really thought that I'm born without sympathy and empathy.


Has it always been this way as long as you can remember with never a change?



Fane7545
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02 Feb 2015, 1:24 am

I've heard that psychopaths and sociopaths feel very superior to others. Maybe you're similar to a sociopath.

Even if you're a psychopath, you don't have to be evil. This guy is a psychopath and even tried to kill his dad, but he's out of prison and trying to help people now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DakEcY7 ... freload=10

Either way, sounds like you need therapy.



dryope
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02 Feb 2015, 1:43 am

Well, to give OP a break, I have a lot of this, too.

People have died that I knew (my uncle I lived with at 4-6 years old died when I was about 10) and I have felt nothing. OK, he's gone. It happens. I'm not glad he's gone, but I am not sad about it either. When my grandmother died, I wasn't sad.

But when my grandmother was dying and unable to speak, I was the only one who read her favorite prayers to her and read the rosary to her (even though I'm the only atheist in the family) in her last days. I am the one who made all her adult children sit around her and say their final words to her. What did they actually do? Tell self-centered stories about their childhood without mentioning her. (Argh.) By the time I was done with them, they were singing "Holy Holy" in a circle around her. That's the way to send someone Catholic off -- with their favorite hymn.

I also can't stand to read about cruelty to animals, beheadings by terrorists, things like that. They make me extremely anxious for days. If I witness cruelty like that, it bothers me for even longer.

So, if the OP is like me (not making an assumption that's the case), he/she may be experiencing the world differently but not be a psychopath. I think I care for people but I may not feel the same as others do in the face of trajedy. And you know what? I think some of their empathy is selfish and that my intellectualization is potentially more humane, because I'm able to be more objective. I think killing is always wrong (I know I'm killing every time I peel a potato, chop an onion, or pick a plant from a garden) and I think people should be treated with respect. But when people die, I don't think how it affects me. I think they are gone and unable to feel anymore. Being sad will not change that.

The one time I felt sad when someone died was my other grandmother, because I had never met her and then realized I never would. (A selfish thought.)



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02 Feb 2015, 2:53 am

IMHO, OP would have to fulfil all criteria for psychopathy to really be labelled a psychopath...just lack of empathy means lack of empathy...I've witnessed it in many "normal" people, NTs and Aspies alike.

Quote:
Psychopathy Checklist-Revised: Factors, Facets, and Itemss

Facet 1: Interpersonal

Glibness/superficial charm
Grandiose sense of self-worth
Pathological lying
Cunning/manipulative

Facet 2: Affective

Lack of remorse or guilt
Emotionally shallow
Callous/lack of empathy
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions



Facet 3: Lifestyle

Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
Parasitic lifestyle
Lack of realistic, long-term goals
Impulsivity
Irresponsibility

Facet 4: Antisocial

Poor behavioral controls
Early behavioral problems
Juvenile delinquency
Revocation of conditional release
Criminal versatility

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_Checklist

http://data.psych.udel.edu/abelcher/Sha ... 201991.pdf

I've met once one (well knowingly, god knows how many I've met unknowingly :? ) and I doubt he'd ever be concerned whether he was a psychopath...as for as feeling nothing, that could some kind of deficiency in processing emotions...alexythimia perchance?



dryope
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02 Feb 2015, 3:10 am

Glibness and superficial charm! Ha! I wish. ;)


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Booyakasha
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02 Feb 2015, 3:40 am

besides, recent studies suggest that even though in psychopaths the default mode for empathy is switched off, it can be switched on again...

If OP can't do that, it's really just a matter of some brain area being a bit too dormant.

Quote:
So psychopathic individuals do not simply lack empathy. Instead, it seems as though for most of us, empathy is the default mode. If we see a victim, we share her pain. For the psychopathic criminals of our study, empathy seemed to be a voluntary activity. If they want to, they can empathize, and that explains how they can be so charming, and maybe so manipulative. Once they have seduced you into doing what serves their purpose, the effortful empathy would though probably disappear again. Free of the constraints of empathy, they is then little to stop them from using violence.

How can psychopathic individuals switch their empathy on and off? All of us have such a switch. We are more empathic towards the pain of our friends, than towards the misery of the people on the other side of the globe. Acupunctures learn to supress their empathy to the sight of a needle entering skin. Reducing empathy, sometimes, has clear evolutionary benefits: if you need to defend your family from an attack, you cannot afford to empathize with your aggressor. Our default mode, however, seems to have our empathy on. Individuals with psychopathy seem to have a slightly different switch: their default mode seems to be off. But

Much still needs to be understood about why and how individuals with psychopathy seem to have the potential to empathize sometimes but have this capacity switched off by default. For therapists, our finding suggests that the best approach may not be to teach them empathy - they already seem capable of empathy. Instead, therapies may need to learn to be empathic always. How to do so is unclear, but it might be best to start such training early, before violence has become a way of life. A recent study from the group of Essi Viding at the UCL (link is external) in London has shown that a callous unemotional subgroup of kids with conduct disorder already seem to lack spontaneous empathy: they also activate their empathic brain less when simply watching others in pain. These kids are known to have a heightened risk of becoming psychopathic adults. Intervening early, in these children, to make empathy automatic, might be a promising approach.


https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/th ... not-always

EDIT: arghhhh links not working properly



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02 Feb 2015, 9:03 am

could it be alxythimia you suffer from? it's common in autism. i wasnt scared one bit on the day i was supposed to go to the dentist, but then i discovered to my astonishment that my hands were shaking and my stomach hurt and i was breating real fast, and my heart raced.

and when the vet called to say my cat was dying, i felt nothing, even relieved that i wouldnt have to pay for her upkeep anymore. i was real cheerful until i reached the vet's office, and then started crying so hard i was choking and couldnt stop. i've been depressed since her death for years. for the first few months, i barely ate or slept and lost weight until everyone thought i was on a diet. i'd stop in the middle of the street or room and forget why i was there. it was horrible.

when you laughed silently, could it be nerves? do you even know how you feel?


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olympiadis
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02 Feb 2015, 12:33 pm

There is a psychopathic spectrum.
Full-blown psychopaths are relatively rare.

There are also proto-psychopaths who can either be on the psychopathic spectrum or normal, but change due to the environment (usually group dynamics) so that they adopt many or all psychopathic traits and behaviors.

There is also dissociation which can look psychopathic on the surface, but really is not at all.



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02 Feb 2015, 1:41 pm

BYNICOLE. You don´t seem to enjoy manipulating people into giving you anything. You don´t sound as if you have an inflated self. You don´t seem to want power.
You don´t seem to do much of, what psychopaths are prone to do.
As said before, psychopaths don´t care about their difference. You do.
You´re just indifferent, - maybe oblivious of your own emotions.

Observe any physical reaction in situations, where you suppose, you ought to feel.

And remember....You cannot feel the pain of others.....That is myth.
You can only empathise/sympathise, understand, that people are sad, when they lose someone close, - but you probably can´t share their pain, - only find a parallell in yourself if you are in contact with own emotions.


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