It's interesting that this is even a thing. I never touch TikTok as the algorithms used are pretty invasive and given my tendency to boredom with impulse control issues I can find myself becoming very irritated when I realize it's attempting to discover some optimum way to keep my eyes on my phone. Yeah that's actually a thing and I can literally imagine there's an entity messing with me.
Oh definitely, I'm a doomscroller myself and my dopamine receptors are fried beyond repair. The algorithm is designed to keep you on the app for as long as possible even if it means pushing pure nonsense your way.
Thank you for shedding light on disinformation. I'm speechless at how misrepresented sociopathy/ASPD are on TicTok and embarrassed for everyone who has the diagnoses and holds themselves to standards of conduct that are productive, beneficial, and positive. These creators are not at all an accurate representation based on my opinion from reading their own words posted here, and it saddens me greatly.
It is a bit messy, isn't it. People definitely want to have the thing that makes them different, and if they have many unresolved issues with their darkness, they want an excuse to indulge it. Being a bad person is a choice, of course, and they negate their responsibility of that choice they are making, by ducking behind a diagnosis that they think provides an identity, as well as shield for themselves from consequences.
I wonder if they realize they are only adding to the stigmas and not making anything better? I see this as three steps backward. I do not agree with excusing bad behavior. There are so many people who have done the work within themselves to overcome their behavior and stigmas attached to their diagnosis. I feel like they should be more accurately represented. These creators put me in mind of Amber Turd
Yeah that lady is a sociopath. The big tell is how much she cares about what people think of them. My psychopath friend told me that an actual psychopath would rather blend in and be totally unnoticed with no one realizing it was ever a thing. Drawing a big glowing arrow to psychopathy is the absolute worst outcome.
"Will ASPD be a result of perpetually being online. A person that is disconnected from the world around them [....]"
I think the reverse is more likely. A person gets traumatized in such a way that they use the internet as a substitute for the missing father, mother, friends etc. I have heard a similar analogy for porn - porn addiction is real but men wouldn't be using porn enough to get addicted if they could get meaningful relationships with women in the first place.
Having experience with both ASPD and Psychopathy I came up with an analogy I think works. Most people are happy sheep on a farm who are content to socialize and be social creatures without ever thinking about it too hard and there's nothing wrong with that.
Psychopaths are canines, wolves at the worst and sheep dogs when they blend in, who will never be able to operate as a sheep because they simply aren't the same type of creature. They can hunt sheep at will or they can guard sheep because they operate at a different level of awareness of the world. They get no comfort from the flocking herd mentality.
ASPDs are sheep who were so traumatized that they can no longer hang out in the sheep flock because of their anti social behaviors. Maybe they have a biting problem because of rough handling as a lamb or they got lost in the woods too long or something. The ASPD sheep is going to be tougher than their peers since they have to survive without the full support of the flock and may live in the same outer regions as the wolfs and dogs but they are not the same. They're still a sheep at heart with the same needs and suffers living at the peripheries while the wolf is happier outside than inside. A battle scarred sheep and wolf might relate over their shared living conditions but they are not the same.
TikTok is a goldmine for misinformation because there's no regulation of content whatsoever. So I'm not surprised this has finally reached you.
Ever heard of race shifting? Or WaterTok? You don't even want to know...
Not too long ago faking ADHD was all the rage, some of the most laughable videos came out of that trend.
On the narcissistic tendencies of the people on this app, I definitely agree that research needs to be done. The levels of entitlement I've witnessed are diabolical.
Have you come across tiktoker and YouTuber “Kanika Batra”? She claims to be a diagnosed sociopath and is a very big advocate for the disorder. She links the disposition of her condition to her father not being emotionally supportive of her as a child.
I wanted to know your thoughts on if she seems legit or not.
Unfortunately, I am not familiar with her at all, so I can't offer any sort of insight to what she says, nor how accurate it is. I will look at her YouTube channel and see if I want to spend any energy to change that.
Oh yes I'm interested in what she thinks about her too. We do know that sociopaths are different from pyschopaths, but sometimes I'm still a little bit suspicious of her
I don't know her content. I wonder if she has the history necessary for sociopathy. Her, "father not being emotionally supportive of her as a child", seems to fall well short if that's all there is. It may be the notion that a lot of people seem to have, that if they are diagnosed with ASPD, then it becomes a, choose your own adventure, after that. They see to believe that ASPD then gives them the choice of being someone with ASPD, a sociopath, or a psychopath, and that their choice on the matter is all that is required.
I have a feeling a lot, if not most, of these online "sociopath/psychopaths" are just playing a make-believe. They're pretending to be what I suspect is the exact opposite of how they truly are as a form of cope.
Yes, many are, but many just have no idea what they are talking about. I saw this happen a lot when I wrote more often on Quora.
There would be a person that would come on and claim that they were a psychopath or a sociopath.
They would write about many of the nefarious deeds that they have supposedly committed, including one that literally wrote that he had the backstory of The Punisher, complete with fake mental health records for, "Frank Castle".
Even when they are fairly obviously not real accounts, because of how over the top they are, leaning into the myths surrounding ASPD, psychopathy, or sociopathy, people still read their contributions. They also begin to believe them, and think that what they are saying is The epitome of whatever label the person is claiming.
Sometimes, these followers decide that they too have that label, whether or not they have ever sat across from a clinician for a diagnosis of any sort.
They then perpetuate the same ridiculous information that the core account did, also contributing incorrect things to whatever diagnosis they are claiming, that the core account also claimed.
This leads to more eyes on this incorrect information being out there, and it feeds into this cycle starting all over again.
Then, often, the core account either vanishes, because it's no longer fun to pretend to be a psychopath, a sociopath, or to have ASPD when they had none of them to begin with, or, frequently, the core account will suddenly find out and admit that they had self-diagnosed, had actually gone to a clinician, and they were something totally different.
Despite the fact that none of what they wrote about their "experience" of being whatever label they decided on, unfortunately, they often leave up the garbage that they put up before, and it is still found and read, and the cycle continues, with the added fun of people using these narratives for clout.
However, it also leads many people to believe that they are something they are not, because this account they found online is something they relate to. If that person is a psychopath, sociopath, or whatever else they might be claiming, then the reader must as well, regardless of the fact that what they read had no relation to any of the labels that they cling to.
Honestly a long post but a good one.People want money and some found a way by pretending to be something they are not.Athena cutting like a japanese knife through all the BS.
I really don't understand why there seems to be so many desperate for validation or fame. They all seem to be variations of Andy Warhol's idea of the future and "artists".
I think that it has to do with the hardwired biological imperative of top mate breeding in a round about way. Humans crave to be the most focused on and desired for the purpose of good genetic outcome.
Thank you for providing me with yet another reason to avoid that godforsaken app. Your mention of trauma and sociopathy reminds me of another issue with those spaces, and there is a larger issue at play here, but I constantly see a watering down of what is considered severe trauma. Being scolded by your parents is not severe trauma, and it makes me wonder why there is such a culture surrounding the need for everything to fit into a label. Particularly a label for something that nobody in their right mind would ever willingly experience. Experiences can simply be distressing without being considered traumatic. I wonder if it is solely a need for sympathetic attention or if there is something larger at play that I am missing, but the issue seems to be societal in many places.
I agree with this completely. Sociopathy isn't something that I think a lot of people have any idea what goes into it to create it. It is never something as mild as being scolded, or just not having a "good relationship" with parents. Add to that, it is pretty rare of an outcome, as these circumstances can produce a multitude of results in how that person develops. Sociopathy is not the norm, it is the exception from it.
My friend that works with survivors of such abuse has seen sociopaths as an outcome, but far more frequently the trauma is reflected in things like CPTSD, another form of a personality disorder, complex mixed trauma reactions, reactive attachment disorder, etc. There re many more, but I am not exactly privy to their medical information. However, sociopathy isn't common, it isn't easy to deal with in a survivor of severe abuse, and it isn't something that comes from not getting a hug from Daddy or Mommy before bed.
Also, I would like to note, this is not the only outcome that is co-opted by these sorts of people glom onto. They pick many others, all the while describing their home life and upbringing to be sound. If it were, they wouldn't have the issue that they are claiming. DID is one of the most pervasive of these. I don't know much about DID, but provided that it's real, it doesn't just appear out of nowhere. It comes from a need to escape the horrors that the individual has experienced.
Interestingly, my friend has never seen a case of DID, and I asked him about this, wondering why. You would think of all the people it would appear in, it would be in those that he has dedicated his life to helping. His response was very interesting.
His theory is that to develop DID, you have to have something to escape to, meaning, that you have to understand there is something else. If you experience this sort of pain, literally your entire life, you know nothing else. There is nowhere in the mind to escape from because the mind is unaware that there is anything other than what it has already experienced. He did say it could be due to the true rarity of it, but I think his theory is an interesting one.
I really liked this week's edition. Your work gets me into my ownself. I read your post Thursday, but I am still reacting now, Sunday morning. Many Thanks to you!!
It's interesting that this is even a thing. I never touch TikTok as the algorithms used are pretty invasive and given my tendency to boredom with impulse control issues I can find myself becoming very irritated when I realize it's attempting to discover some optimum way to keep my eyes on my phone. Yeah that's actually a thing and I can literally imagine there's an entity messing with me.
I know what you mean. With people this works with, this is exactly what gets them locked into "doom-scrolling".
Oh definitely, I'm a doomscroller myself and my dopamine receptors are fried beyond repair. The algorithm is designed to keep you on the app for as long as possible even if it means pushing pure nonsense your way.
*bangs head against a wall*
This is why I don't have TicTok.
Thank you for shedding light on disinformation. I'm speechless at how misrepresented sociopathy/ASPD are on TicTok and embarrassed for everyone who has the diagnoses and holds themselves to standards of conduct that are productive, beneficial, and positive. These creators are not at all an accurate representation based on my opinion from reading their own words posted here, and it saddens me greatly.
It is a bit messy, isn't it. People definitely want to have the thing that makes them different, and if they have many unresolved issues with their darkness, they want an excuse to indulge it. Being a bad person is a choice, of course, and they negate their responsibility of that choice they are making, by ducking behind a diagnosis that they think provides an identity, as well as shield for themselves from consequences.
I wonder if they realize they are only adding to the stigmas and not making anything better? I see this as three steps backward. I do not agree with excusing bad behavior. There are so many people who have done the work within themselves to overcome their behavior and stigmas attached to their diagnosis. I feel like they should be more accurately represented. These creators put me in mind of Amber Turd
It depends on the person, but there is a lot of ego involved in being this sort of person.
If their motive is money, then they wouldn't care.
If their motivations are to gain clout, they wouldn't care.
If they think they are that label, they wouldn't see it that way.
Motivation matters, but the outcome doesn't change regardless.
Yeah that lady is a sociopath. The big tell is how much she cares about what people think of them. My psychopath friend told me that an actual psychopath would rather blend in and be totally unnoticed with no one realizing it was ever a thing. Drawing a big glowing arrow to psychopathy is the absolute worst outcome.
"Will ASPD be a result of perpetually being online. A person that is disconnected from the world around them [....]"
I think the reverse is more likely. A person gets traumatized in such a way that they use the internet as a substitute for the missing father, mother, friends etc. I have heard a similar analogy for porn - porn addiction is real but men wouldn't be using porn enough to get addicted if they could get meaningful relationships with women in the first place.
Having experience with both ASPD and Psychopathy I came up with an analogy I think works. Most people are happy sheep on a farm who are content to socialize and be social creatures without ever thinking about it too hard and there's nothing wrong with that.
Psychopaths are canines, wolves at the worst and sheep dogs when they blend in, who will never be able to operate as a sheep because they simply aren't the same type of creature. They can hunt sheep at will or they can guard sheep because they operate at a different level of awareness of the world. They get no comfort from the flocking herd mentality.
ASPDs are sheep who were so traumatized that they can no longer hang out in the sheep flock because of their anti social behaviors. Maybe they have a biting problem because of rough handling as a lamb or they got lost in the woods too long or something. The ASPD sheep is going to be tougher than their peers since they have to survive without the full support of the flock and may live in the same outer regions as the wolfs and dogs but they are not the same. They're still a sheep at heart with the same needs and suffers living at the peripheries while the wolf is happier outside than inside. A battle scarred sheep and wolf might relate over their shared living conditions but they are not the same.
That is a really interesting analogy. It seems to be quite apt.
TikTok is a goldmine for misinformation because there's no regulation of content whatsoever. So I'm not surprised this has finally reached you.
Ever heard of race shifting? Or WaterTok? You don't even want to know...
Not too long ago faking ADHD was all the rage, some of the most laughable videos came out of that trend.
On the narcissistic tendencies of the people on this app, I definitely agree that research needs to be done. The levels of entitlement I've witnessed are diabolical.
The chinese did it better than we.I dont have Tik Tok becase it makes you only dummer.
WaterTok? Nope, that's a new one.
I agree, the entitlement and need for notice is... a lot.
Hi Athena, fun read!
Have you come across tiktoker and YouTuber “Kanika Batra”? She claims to be a diagnosed sociopath and is a very big advocate for the disorder. She links the disposition of her condition to her father not being emotionally supportive of her as a child.
I wanted to know your thoughts on if she seems legit or not.
Thanks for writing.
Unfortunately, I am not familiar with her at all, so I can't offer any sort of insight to what she says, nor how accurate it is. I will look at her YouTube channel and see if I want to spend any energy to change that.
"not being emotionally supportive"... Compared to others, raped, beaten, threatened, etc. that comes across as very nuanced.
But apparently a current hook to an "identity" and YouTube$$$
Yeah, if that's it... it seems to fall far short of the things required to create sociopathy.
Yes. For her, just "fall short".
Humorous in a way: But UN-funny mucking up serious ideas of serious people.
Oh yes I'm interested in what she thinks about her too. We do know that sociopaths are different from pyschopaths, but sometimes I'm still a little bit suspicious of her
I don't know her content. I wonder if she has the history necessary for sociopathy. Her, "father not being emotionally supportive of her as a child", seems to fall well short if that's all there is. It may be the notion that a lot of people seem to have, that if they are diagnosed with ASPD, then it becomes a, choose your own adventure, after that. They see to believe that ASPD then gives them the choice of being someone with ASPD, a sociopath, or a psychopath, and that their choice on the matter is all that is required.
I have a feeling a lot, if not most, of these online "sociopath/psychopaths" are just playing a make-believe. They're pretending to be what I suspect is the exact opposite of how they truly are as a form of cope.
Just a guess.
Yes, many are, but many just have no idea what they are talking about. I saw this happen a lot when I wrote more often on Quora.
There would be a person that would come on and claim that they were a psychopath or a sociopath.
They would write about many of the nefarious deeds that they have supposedly committed, including one that literally wrote that he had the backstory of The Punisher, complete with fake mental health records for, "Frank Castle".
Even when they are fairly obviously not real accounts, because of how over the top they are, leaning into the myths surrounding ASPD, psychopathy, or sociopathy, people still read their contributions. They also begin to believe them, and think that what they are saying is The epitome of whatever label the person is claiming.
Sometimes, these followers decide that they too have that label, whether or not they have ever sat across from a clinician for a diagnosis of any sort.
They then perpetuate the same ridiculous information that the core account did, also contributing incorrect things to whatever diagnosis they are claiming, that the core account also claimed.
This leads to more eyes on this incorrect information being out there, and it feeds into this cycle starting all over again.
Then, often, the core account either vanishes, because it's no longer fun to pretend to be a psychopath, a sociopath, or to have ASPD when they had none of them to begin with, or, frequently, the core account will suddenly find out and admit that they had self-diagnosed, had actually gone to a clinician, and they were something totally different.
Despite the fact that none of what they wrote about their "experience" of being whatever label they decided on, unfortunately, they often leave up the garbage that they put up before, and it is still found and read, and the cycle continues, with the added fun of people using these narratives for clout.
However, it also leads many people to believe that they are something they are not, because this account they found online is something they relate to. If that person is a psychopath, sociopath, or whatever else they might be claiming, then the reader must as well, regardless of the fact that what they read had no relation to any of the labels that they cling to.
Many such cases
Unfortunately, true
Honestly a long post but a good one.People want money and some found a way by pretending to be something they are not.Athena cutting like a japanese knife through all the BS.
Thank you, kindly
I really don't understand why there seems to be so many desperate for validation or fame. They all seem to be variations of Andy Warhol's idea of the future and "artists".
I think that it has to do with the hardwired biological imperative of top mate breeding in a round about way. Humans crave to be the most focused on and desired for the purpose of good genetic outcome.
That's just a guess on my part, however.
Thank you for providing me with yet another reason to avoid that godforsaken app. Your mention of trauma and sociopathy reminds me of another issue with those spaces, and there is a larger issue at play here, but I constantly see a watering down of what is considered severe trauma. Being scolded by your parents is not severe trauma, and it makes me wonder why there is such a culture surrounding the need for everything to fit into a label. Particularly a label for something that nobody in their right mind would ever willingly experience. Experiences can simply be distressing without being considered traumatic. I wonder if it is solely a need for sympathetic attention or if there is something larger at play that I am missing, but the issue seems to be societal in many places.
I agree with this completely. Sociopathy isn't something that I think a lot of people have any idea what goes into it to create it. It is never something as mild as being scolded, or just not having a "good relationship" with parents. Add to that, it is pretty rare of an outcome, as these circumstances can produce a multitude of results in how that person develops. Sociopathy is not the norm, it is the exception from it.
My friend that works with survivors of such abuse has seen sociopaths as an outcome, but far more frequently the trauma is reflected in things like CPTSD, another form of a personality disorder, complex mixed trauma reactions, reactive attachment disorder, etc. There re many more, but I am not exactly privy to their medical information. However, sociopathy isn't common, it isn't easy to deal with in a survivor of severe abuse, and it isn't something that comes from not getting a hug from Daddy or Mommy before bed.
Also, I would like to note, this is not the only outcome that is co-opted by these sorts of people glom onto. They pick many others, all the while describing their home life and upbringing to be sound. If it were, they wouldn't have the issue that they are claiming. DID is one of the most pervasive of these. I don't know much about DID, but provided that it's real, it doesn't just appear out of nowhere. It comes from a need to escape the horrors that the individual has experienced.
Interestingly, my friend has never seen a case of DID, and I asked him about this, wondering why. You would think of all the people it would appear in, it would be in those that he has dedicated his life to helping. His response was very interesting.
His theory is that to develop DID, you have to have something to escape to, meaning, that you have to understand there is something else. If you experience this sort of pain, literally your entire life, you know nothing else. There is nowhere in the mind to escape from because the mind is unaware that there is anything other than what it has already experienced. He did say it could be due to the true rarity of it, but I think his theory is an interesting one.
Very enjoyable and interesting read, thank you!
Thank you, Tim
I really liked this week's edition. Your work gets me into my ownself. I read your post Thursday, but I am still reacting now, Sunday morning. Many Thanks to you!!
Very cool