What is it like having a psychotic mind?
Television has glamorised psychopaths and sociopaths into killers who are actively working to harm others. Although, this is only a stereotypical notion. This description is far from the truth. 1 in 100 people meet the clinical criteria of psychopathy. But surprisingly, only only a quarter of federal prisoners are clinically diagnosed as being psychopaths and sociopaths. This article highlights what it is like to have a psychotic mind.
In response to a question on Reddit, psychotic minds broke the stereotypical label and explained what it is really like being one.
“My opinions seem to generally upset people”
“For a long time I assumed I was normal, and the people who cried over things were overly dramatic and weird,” one user explained. “When people died that I was close to, and I felt nothing, I started to question myself.”
“Media sometimes portrays people like me as someone going out and murdering people and feeling no remorse and such. But I’ve never felt the need to harm anybody. Maybe out of curiousity when I was younger, to see if I would feel bad. But that question has already been answered so there is no need.”
“I think I have very good opinions about controversial topics like abortion, religion, and politics in general but my opinions seem to generally upset people.”
“I see every loss as a relief”
One user described,
“The media does indeed sensationalise the condition to the point where every psychopath is portrayed as a killer,” they wrote. “I’m really not a killer, although murder is always on the menu of options as a solution to any particular problem. But even a psychopath knows that that is an extreme solution – like suicide. It ends the problem, but the planning is endless and the consequences are a pain.”
“Interaction with family and friends is a matter of imitation of what those relationships should look like in order to deliver results,” they wrote, adding advice for those who think they too might be psychopaths.
“Bereavement is a good test for you if you’re in doubt. I see every loss as a relief – one less dragging ball and chain weighing me down and one less route for exposure.”
Another user wrote that people with a psychotic mind are also humans,
“Most of my friends and family know about my disorder and I’ve personally found that if I tell them before they notice something is a little off, they handle it better,” one person wrote.
“It tends to dispel this myth that everyone in our lives are only a play thing and we are just manipulating everything. And while yes, I can be extremely manipulative because I don’t get wound up in emotions like everyone else and know how to easily use those emotions to get someone in the direction I want them, it doesn’t mean that [I’m] doing it all of the time in fact I try to do it only when needed. And in fact feeling emotions less than others can also hinder me to grow attached to them.”
