#1

First day I’m just sorta hanging back and watching everything. Group of kids I was with ran the spectrum of issues, but nothing that made me feel unsafe to be around.
Then this kid walks up and introduces himself. He was about 14 years old. Came across as very nice and asked me some questions - his entire demeanor came off as if he was the de-facto leader of the group - kids tend to naturally fall into this kind of social hierarchy so I didn’t think much of it.
After talking to me for a few minutes he walks away and immediately afterwords one of the workers comes up and asked me what he was asking me and what I had told him. It was all very surface level stuff, but what the worker told me next shook me.
Worker: “Don’t ever talk to X one on one or tell him anything about yourself.”
Me: “Why?”
Worker: “He will get in your head and find ways to use it against you.”
The worker then proceeded to tell me some of the reasons this kid was in the program, and it made my skin crawl. He warned me that he would 100% try to cozy up to me and talk to me, and that when he did, I was to tell him that I wasn’t allowed to talk to him outside of any scheduled therapy sessions or other official activities one on one, and that “he knows the deal.”
Sure enough next day during lunch he comes over to where I’m sitting and starts to talk to me, and I gave him the rehearsed response.
I do not exaggerate when I say this: it is like he literally became a different person after I said that.
You know how in Jaws when Quint talks about the lifeless black eyes of a shark? That is exactly what I saw in this kid. It was like a switch turned off. Utterly cold and lifeless. His posture changed, his obviously practiced smile and way of speaking changed, the mask genuinely came off. He cocked his head slightly and looked at me and I had two thoughts run through my head: 1. If this kid ever got me alone I had no doubt in my mind that he would try everything he could to k**l me. 2. This kid will 100% end up in prison.
“Ah. I see.” he said. His voice and tone was even different from what I had experienced the day before. “Don’t want me to know too much, right?”
Before I could say anything he stood up: “Good luck with the rest of this week.” It’s hard to describe, but everything about what he said felt like a threat.
From that point on for the rest of the week the kid didn’t say a word to me - but every time I looked up I could see him staring at me, sizing me up. It was deeply unsettling.
I ended up not taking the job.
Now I work as a h**h school teacher. Been doing it for 10 years, and I have had kids with all kinds of issues, but that kid is the only one I would ever call a genuine psychopath. A part of me wonders if he was possessed by a demon, because what I saw after he realized there was no point in keeping up the facade felt… inhuman. That’s the only way I could ever describe it.
#2

#3

I had an office job in Amsterdam, NL. One day this new guy from the US was hired in to work in my team (software dev).
Late 30s, kinda shy but admittedly smart and good with Java.
Long story short, this dude was the most insidious manchild I've ever met, doing all kinds of devious things that would always create conflict with me, only to always make me look like I was the crazy one in front of all my coworkers. To the extent that after 2 years I had a mental breakdown in the middle of a company meeting because of stuff that he was doing, and how helpless I was feeling, messing with my reputation just because.
I had to keep a folder in my computer with all kinds of evidence proving how much of a compulsive liar he was and how he was deliberately targeting me to just make my life miserable.
Eventually I got sick leave and I made my case to HR, proving all the c**p he was doing (and how good he was at it) to disturb me and make me look like I was the insane one.
He eventually got fired mainly because of all of this, but also because after a while he started having trouble to keep up with all the lies he would tell before everyone else, so people started catching up to him.
Looking at the history of psychopathy, it’s been an absolutely bumpy ride. Research shows that in the 1700s and 1800s, doctors were baffled by people who committed awful acts yet seemed perfectly sane, a condition they called “moral insanity.” By the mid-1900s, researcher Hervey Cleckley identified psychopathy through internal personality traits like a total lack of empathy.
However, the psychiatric manual (DSM) took a different route, focusing instead on external rule-breaking behaviors and naming it Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). This created a major divide: the DSM was used in clinics to track bad behavior, while the forensic world used the PCL-R t**l to measure those cold, manipulative personality traits. This meant you could have ASPD without being a psychopath.
#4

What this child then started doing was deliberately sitting next to the autistic student, deliberately doing something that would provoke him, then dobbing the autistic student in for talking or kicking out or telling him to shut up. It was EVERY time they came to sit on the floor. I eventually had to implement a seating plan for both tables and floor, and communicate this to all the other teachers, because whenever I wasn’t in the room he’d go right back to the autistic child and start up again.
There were other kids in the class who weren’t very nice to this autistic child, but this kid is the only one I’ve ever taught who deliberately went out of his way to provoke meltdowns. When I questioned him about it he said “it’s funny”. His parents, with whom I spoke regularly, didn’t care and kept blaming the school for “letting those kind of students in”.
It was the most exhausting year of my career constantly keeping them separate and keeping an eye out to ensure the autistic student was not being bullied either in class or on the playground. At the same time I’m dealing with the parents of the autistic student, who refuse to believe that he IS autistic, therefore he wasn’t allocated funding and we couldn’t get any support for him.
#5

His entire personality was wrapped up in being from Russia, he always talked about it, referenced it, etc
If you were out in public with him, he'd turn to you and go "did you see that guy? Totally had Russian mob hand tattoos"
It happened so much we figured out that at least some of it has to be exaggerated or made up. Tons of little lies, like he's telling you he would give you $20 to drive him home, but ask to stop at circle K first. Then he'd use the $20 to buy cigarettes and give you the change
One time he asked me "you have a car right?"
He knew I did. His 'plan' was to rob his d****r. He said all I had to do was drive and stand there looking menacing with a gun. I told him I'm not interested, I don't own a gun, and I don't know how to use one, so hard pass. I avoided talking to him after that
After college, a mutual friend and I were working together and he came up to me and said "remember 'Alexi' The Russian? Well, I MET HIS MOM"....
Turns out, not Alexi, it was Alexander. Turns out, not adopted from Russia at a young age. Grew up in Scottsdale Arizona. Absolutely nothing the guy had ever said was true
A few years later I'm telling this story to a coworker, and the next day she comes in with a link to a news article and said "is this the guy?"
It was. He had convinced the brother of the mutual friend I used to work with to go along with his "rob my d**g d****r" plan. The brother got k****d by the d****r, and The "Russian" is spending life in prison on the hook for it.
#6

While psychopathy isn’t an official diagnosis, experts stress that in modern psychology, it’s used in legal and clinical settings to describe someone who is callous, egocentric, and lacks empathy. It still gets confused with ASPD. However, they aren’t the same. In fact, only a small fraction of people with ASPD are actually considered psychopaths.
Psychopathic behavior also varies wildly. Some individuals become criminals, while others use their traits to succeed as corporate leaders. Ultimately, there is a big difference between having a few traits and being a psychopath. Anyone can display the behavior, but only when these cold traits pair with actual antisocial behavior, is someone viewed as a psychopath.
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#9

When we look at the causes of psychopathy, studies highlight that it isn’t caused by just one thing, but it’s a complex mix of genetics, environment, and brain biology. While nobody is born a psychopath, genetics accounts for about half of the variation in these traits, meaning some kids inherit a much higher risk.
Environmental factors, such as a highly stressful pregnancy, a lack of warm parenting, or even a naturally low resting heart rate, can also increase the odds. However, having these risk factors doesn’t guarantee someone will develop it. Simply put, these genetic and environmental influences alter how the brain develops, particularly the amygdala.
It handles fear, empathy, and social connection. In children with psychopathic traits, the amygdala is often smaller or less active, making them uniquely fearless and less emotionally responsive. Scientists are still studying these brain differences to design better treatments and improve lives.
#10

A little while later he was showing me a knife and suddenly made a motion to like, pretend to s**b me with it, like a "made you flinch haha" type bad joke. I flinched my hands up, and my left hand caught on the blade and got opened a bit between my index and middle finger. Not a huge wound, but I was still bleeding a bunch and crying even more. Run up to my parents, they take me to the hospital, and to this day I still have the lil scar on my hand and my parents never talked to these friends of theirs again.
#11

She had this on and off boyfriend. I never knew if they were on or off. One day he was the best thing ever and was hanging with us, and the next day she hated his
Then he got a new girlfriend during one of their breaks. She was furious. It should be noted she wasn't a nun when they weren't together. So she is ranting and shouting and I'm being a good friend agreeing that yes, men do indeed suck.
Then she says she is going to cut his break lines. Oh and his mother's too. His mother was not her biggest fan. So I'm thinking she is just letting off steam and venting and would never in a million years do this. She was a very kind, sweet, generous and loving person to everyone around her, whenever I was around and to me.
So anyway, she was in fact not kidding. She drove to his mother's house where he also lived in the d**d of the night and did exactly what she said she would do.
Luckily by some miracle one of them realised something was wrong before they even left the driveway and the other figured it out a short while later while not driving very fast.
So I am in shock she actually did it. (No you didn't! Yes I f*****g did!) Then she gets angry and starts shouting and venting BECAUSE IT DIDN'T WORK and they are both fine. Yeah that was the last time I ever hung out with her.
I think her mother might have also been a bit crazy. At one of her birthday toast to her daughter included how proud she was that she made it through h**h school without getting pregnant. What?!
#12

I broke up with her that day, only to be greeted in the morning with her face, realizing she stole my keys, duplicated it, and returned where I kept it.
I moved to a different city a week after.
Weirdly enough, people often think that psychopaths and sociopaths are the same thing, and use the words interchangeably. However, researchers point out that they are actually quite different. While both share traits of ASPD, they have different styles. Sociopaths are impulsive, erratic, and emotionally reactive, usually due to childhood trauma.
They struggle to fit in but can still feel limited empathy, guilt, and attachment. On the other hand, psychopaths are much colder and more calculated, with traits rooted in genetics and brain structure. They have virtually no conscience but are highly skilled at mimicking charm and social rules to manipulate others.
Surprisingly, psychopaths aren’t completely immune to feelings. In fact, they actually experience the sting of loneliness and social rejection, which causes them stress and can trigger aggression. Many have lived deeply hurt-filled lives and find it incredibly tough to trust anyone. After all, just like every human being, they share the basic desire to be loved and accepted.
#13

Years later I had been asking him to make a doctors appointment to address his “sleep s*x disorder”, all kinds of excuses came up, then one morning he woke up with a huge spot in a very obvious part on his nose.., and he booked an urgent appointment with the doctor. For the pimple. Didn’t find raping his wife while he was “asleep”on a nearly nightly basis was not grounds for medical help but something affecting his appearance was.
An argument ensued and he said ‘you know you like it really’. Yeah f*****g psychopath.
There was so much stuff that should have alerted me, and other moments when it hit me again. He had been controlling my food and discouraging me from eating more when I weighed less than 80lbs. Due to anorexia I thought he was the only one telling me the truth. I was “skinny fat” and needed to avoid carbs & sugar.
Luckily eating disorder doctors noticed and raised appropriate safeguarding, got him to move out and admitted me to hospital. After a few weeks in hospital I was really worried about a fellow patient and just had this desperation for her to eat her meals and get stronger. It was then I realised how psychopathic it was for him to sit and watch his emaciated wife not eat, with no natural urge to get me to eat.
#14

#15

this man “married a lesbian for citizenship in Australia, got drunk and slept with married young admin staff he had power and management over which meant she had to resign and almost lost her fiance, then repeated the same thing with the next admin and put her into a leadership position, which destroyed the team she was supposed to lead..
He then moves on to the next younger female volunteer, whilst also flirting and playing with the obese
He sweet talks and flirts with all the older female managers- those without clinical training are charmed, including HR managers who try to help him gain further promotions.
Eventually he is promoted to a role where he can’t go any higher in his desperate pursuit of being a CEO, because all of his behaviours have been documented and are known to senior staff who aren’t charmed.
He then finds another org to go and charms their female CEO.
Thankfully I heard one of the women he took advantage of wrote to the board of the new org.
I don’t know about you, but that was definitely an eye-opener for me. Although looking at some of the gruesome stories in this list, people should definitely get professional help even if they have an inkling that something is wrong with them. Wouldn’t you agree, as well? Also, if you have ever experienced something similar, feel free to drop your stories in the comments section!
#16

I was stunned. W*f.
#17

of remorse gets me the heebie jeebies.
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