Are you familiar with the Just World Fallacy? For anyone who isn't, it's what makes many humans believe everyone gets what they deserve. For example, many of the challenges I face are not due to poor decision making on my part, as I am methodical, analytical and logical, but rather they are because I was targeted from the age of 5 for severe child abuse, such as CSA. This groomed me to be targeted by other abusers. 5 men in my family including my male parent perpetrated CSA against me multiple times until I escaped at age 17. I've been physically and mentally abused, neglected and I was caretaking an infant at age 10.5 when my younger sibling was born. But the number of times I get blamed for my circumstances by the uninitiated is immeasurable.
Humans want simple solutions to complex problems. Toss a physical disability on top of autism and ADHD along with severe trauma, and ta-da, here I am. My challenges are complex and it's not my fault. It is, however, my responsibility to survive. I've managed that for nearly 60 years. I'm not dead yet.
I've been reading your content for a few years now. Your posts are always food for thought. Thank you for another thought-provoking piece.
Certainly, there are plenty of bad things that happen to people that they have no hand in, but also certainly, there are many that decide themselves into a place of self-imposed suffering.
Happy for the lad. Talking to Athena is like talking to a mirror that stabs you in the wounds but you understand why it happend and it heals and you feel better, see stuff with more clarity and maybe take action. Its also very awsome the detached emotional perspective of hers.
Been reading her articles and following her for a while. She has had a postive impact in my emotionaly wise. Im more independent emotionally of people and a little more rational with choices.
Cant thank you enough for your time and attention!
Bad decisions have always intrigued me, especially when observing how young people with psychopathic traits, lacking cognitive impulse control, manage to commit so many crimes without worrying about their moral implications. As you mentioned in a Quora account, you faced many problems with the justice system when you were young. At that time, how did you assess the risk of being caught and of tarnishing your social image? And when you found yourself in a dangerous situation, with a high risk of being discovered, how did you behave?
Hello Athena, it's been a few months or so since I have been here. I just saw this interview by Chris Williamson from a guy who seems to have a good grip on what he calls 'sociopaths'. Like an understanding of them not just the idea they are all monsters. I thought it might be interesting for you in gauging more widespread acceptance of more sensible ideas on the topic.
I will not directly post the youtube because substack will censor me. The name of it is: Youtube: Chris Williamson: How much does IQ matter? - Spencer Greenberg - From about 1:10:00. Posted, August 9th 2025.
Athena, I’ve been reading your articles and found your knowledge of psychology to be brilliant. I believe that, as a psychopath, you can offer us a perspective that is unique and different on certain topics. In a week, I have an exam for the position of public prosecutor. I’m very well-prepared, but I’ve noticed that anxiety can still significantly affect my performance in high-level exams. Even subtle lapses can lead to setbacks. What would be your advice for dealing with this, based on your perspective?
Remind yourself that this is a recitation of what you know you know, nothing more. If someone asked you questions about what you have studied, could you answer them? If you can, them being on a specific piece of paper, in a specific room, doesn't change the information you have. Don't let the environment that your knowledge is in change it's presence.
Setting that aside, even after I get a test question wrong, I can almost immediately understand the logic as soon as I see the correct answer. I've never understood why that happens.
I have been reflecting further, and the advice will be, basically, to forget the entire environment around me — and even the complexity of the questions — as something I should worry about, and to focus on a purely internal matter: the recovery of information and internal reasoning. Is my logic correct?
Gosh, you've helped so many people. I'm one of them, but wouldn't be as memorable as this person you've written about.
I hope they read this and know that there are heaps of strangers proud of what they've accomplished on their journey.
There's a lot in, "what you've listed are all fixable problems." Almost always so. And those that aren't (terminal illness, etc), the goal is to get through the stages of grief to acceptance.
Thank you for writing this story. It is quite a timely read. Ultimately, no one else is going to put those ducks in a row for you to fix your life, so regardless of what happened and who is to blame, it's your responsibility to fix what is broken.
I think there's something to be said for when some people complain and point to outside factors, that it's not necessarily always as you've portrayed here. I know in my case, I recently have had a series of events that have occurred that I perpetually bitch about because to me, it still hasn't been resolved in a way that does any justice to the situation,n but that bitching that I do comes with full self-awareness as to what my role was in the situation.
That is, when I can't get a resolution I'm satisfied with and I know I've been grossly done wrong, I'll complain tirelessly about it, but, at the same time, I'm acutely aware of what my role was in the situation. It's like, when I'm complaining about it - when I can't get the slightest nod or acknowledgement about the true gravity of the effects of what happened from anyone, why would I validate anything for them about my role?
As for me, I'm fully aware of what my role was and I kick myself for it daily, but I'm not going to go and write up some complaint about what someone else did and then bash myself for all of the mistakes I made in the situation. I know what my mistakes were I don't need to write about them, if the people I'm writing about want to point out my mistakes, then they should write about it, but I'm not going to do their work for them.
It doesn't mean I'm not self-aware. It means that no one has even acknowledged that they went over the line, let alone done anything to repair it. So, I sure am not going to acknowledge anything they can use to justify their actions in their own minds. It'd be like telling them it's my fault, and they would latch onto that. My point is that when someone is complaining like that, it doesn't necessarily mean they aren't self-aware; they may just be tired of no one acknowledging the wrong, isolating them, or offering just the illusion of compensatory actions, which they have no intention of following through with.
The things that were offered were future faking that will never actually be followed through with, or they were offered as they knew I stood no chance of taking them up on the resolution because of the constraints dealt to me by my situation. So, it's like here I'll offer you a free seat at a concert while knowing that I'm broke and can't afford the plane ticket or hotel. If what is offered is unobtainable, then it's not really a solution to the problem.
It was all offered just so they could pretend that they did everything in their power to appease me, but I was being the stubborn one. No, it was disengenuous with no intention of being followed through with because the person justifies it by saying that bad things were done to me by the universe because the universe knows I'm guilty and the universe is never wrong. You should really hear the crap that I'm told at times as justification for it. It would blow your mind.
Anyway, if you made it to the end of that, thank you for taking the time to read it. I appreciate that you read my vent. Your article was timely, though, as it made me reconnect with the idea that I'm going to have to suck it up and just go through the pain and embarrassment of going through the same sort of job thing that you described here. Now I know what I need to do. So thank you.
I did say in the first part of the article that, of course, there are plenty of times that suffering is not self-induced, just that this post was not about those times.
Why would someone consider ending it when they are still breathing and relatively healthy? As long as you are healthy you can do most anything and everything regarding your own behavior.
They see no way out. How many times have you presented a view point that the person you are talking to did not ever consider the perspective that you are offering? Consider someone that does not have a different perspective that they can draw from, and their decisions keep ending in disaster. At some point, someone might not be able to see any other way to deal with the problems that they are dealing with.
Unfortunately I think most people cant see another perspective especially if it seems like a lot of work. But calling it quits seems a little extreme over something that you haven't honestly tried to overcome. One way has possibilities the other is finality.
Are you familiar with the Just World Fallacy? For anyone who isn't, it's what makes many humans believe everyone gets what they deserve. For example, many of the challenges I face are not due to poor decision making on my part, as I am methodical, analytical and logical, but rather they are because I was targeted from the age of 5 for severe child abuse, such as CSA. This groomed me to be targeted by other abusers. 5 men in my family including my male parent perpetrated CSA against me multiple times until I escaped at age 17. I've been physically and mentally abused, neglected and I was caretaking an infant at age 10.5 when my younger sibling was born. But the number of times I get blamed for my circumstances by the uninitiated is immeasurable.
Humans want simple solutions to complex problems. Toss a physical disability on top of autism and ADHD along with severe trauma, and ta-da, here I am. My challenges are complex and it's not my fault. It is, however, my responsibility to survive. I've managed that for nearly 60 years. I'm not dead yet.
I've been reading your content for a few years now. Your posts are always food for thought. Thank you for another thought-provoking piece.
Certainly, there are plenty of bad things that happen to people that they have no hand in, but also certainly, there are many that decide themselves into a place of self-imposed suffering.
Happy for the lad. Talking to Athena is like talking to a mirror that stabs you in the wounds but you understand why it happend and it heals and you feel better, see stuff with more clarity and maybe take action. Its also very awsome the detached emotional perspective of hers.
Been reading her articles and following her for a while. She has had a postive impact in my emotionaly wise. Im more independent emotionally of people and a little more rational with choices.
Cant thank you enough for your time and attention!
Thank you for reading, Luiz, as always.
Bad decisions have always intrigued me, especially when observing how young people with psychopathic traits, lacking cognitive impulse control, manage to commit so many crimes without worrying about their moral implications. As you mentioned in a Quora account, you faced many problems with the justice system when you were young. At that time, how did you assess the risk of being caught and of tarnishing your social image? And when you found yourself in a dangerous situation, with a high risk of being discovered, how did you behave?
When I was younger, I didn't care. I did what I wanted, had fun, and dealt with fallout. I had to learn if the fallout was worth it.
Hello Athena, it's been a few months or so since I have been here. I just saw this interview by Chris Williamson from a guy who seems to have a good grip on what he calls 'sociopaths'. Like an understanding of them not just the idea they are all monsters. I thought it might be interesting for you in gauging more widespread acceptance of more sensible ideas on the topic.
I will not directly post the youtube because substack will censor me. The name of it is: Youtube: Chris Williamson: How much does IQ matter? - Spencer Greenberg - From about 1:10:00. Posted, August 9th 2025.
Thank you, I will take a look
Athena, I’ve been reading your articles and found your knowledge of psychology to be brilliant. I believe that, as a psychopath, you can offer us a perspective that is unique and different on certain topics. In a week, I have an exam for the position of public prosecutor. I’m very well-prepared, but I’ve noticed that anxiety can still significantly affect my performance in high-level exams. Even subtle lapses can lead to setbacks. What would be your advice for dealing with this, based on your perspective?
Remind yourself that this is a recitation of what you know you know, nothing more. If someone asked you questions about what you have studied, could you answer them? If you can, them being on a specific piece of paper, in a specific room, doesn't change the information you have. Don't let the environment that your knowledge is in change it's presence.
Very good, thank you, it definitely helped me.
I wish you well on your exam
Setting that aside, even after I get a test question wrong, I can almost immediately understand the logic as soon as I see the correct answer. I've never understood why that happens.
Maybe you are relying on instinct over information?
I have been reflecting further, and the advice will be, basically, to forget the entire environment around me — and even the complexity of the questions — as something I should worry about, and to focus on a purely internal matter: the recovery of information and internal reasoning. Is my logic correct?
Yes, remember what you know, and how to think.
This was great.
Gosh, you've helped so many people. I'm one of them, but wouldn't be as memorable as this person you've written about.
I hope they read this and know that there are heaps of strangers proud of what they've accomplished on their journey.
There's a lot in, "what you've listed are all fixable problems." Almost always so. And those that aren't (terminal illness, etc), the goal is to get through the stages of grief to acceptance.
Agreed
Thank you for writing this story. It is quite a timely read. Ultimately, no one else is going to put those ducks in a row for you to fix your life, so regardless of what happened and who is to blame, it's your responsibility to fix what is broken.
I think there's something to be said for when some people complain and point to outside factors, that it's not necessarily always as you've portrayed here. I know in my case, I recently have had a series of events that have occurred that I perpetually bitch about because to me, it still hasn't been resolved in a way that does any justice to the situation,n but that bitching that I do comes with full self-awareness as to what my role was in the situation.
That is, when I can't get a resolution I'm satisfied with and I know I've been grossly done wrong, I'll complain tirelessly about it, but, at the same time, I'm acutely aware of what my role was in the situation. It's like, when I'm complaining about it - when I can't get the slightest nod or acknowledgement about the true gravity of the effects of what happened from anyone, why would I validate anything for them about my role?
As for me, I'm fully aware of what my role was and I kick myself for it daily, but I'm not going to go and write up some complaint about what someone else did and then bash myself for all of the mistakes I made in the situation. I know what my mistakes were I don't need to write about them, if the people I'm writing about want to point out my mistakes, then they should write about it, but I'm not going to do their work for them.
It doesn't mean I'm not self-aware. It means that no one has even acknowledged that they went over the line, let alone done anything to repair it. So, I sure am not going to acknowledge anything they can use to justify their actions in their own minds. It'd be like telling them it's my fault, and they would latch onto that. My point is that when someone is complaining like that, it doesn't necessarily mean they aren't self-aware; they may just be tired of no one acknowledging the wrong, isolating them, or offering just the illusion of compensatory actions, which they have no intention of following through with.
The things that were offered were future faking that will never actually be followed through with, or they were offered as they knew I stood no chance of taking them up on the resolution because of the constraints dealt to me by my situation. So, it's like here I'll offer you a free seat at a concert while knowing that I'm broke and can't afford the plane ticket or hotel. If what is offered is unobtainable, then it's not really a solution to the problem.
It was all offered just so they could pretend that they did everything in their power to appease me, but I was being the stubborn one. No, it was disengenuous with no intention of being followed through with because the person justifies it by saying that bad things were done to me by the universe because the universe knows I'm guilty and the universe is never wrong. You should really hear the crap that I'm told at times as justification for it. It would blow your mind.
Anyway, if you made it to the end of that, thank you for taking the time to read it. I appreciate that you read my vent. Your article was timely, though, as it made me reconnect with the idea that I'm going to have to suck it up and just go through the pain and embarrassment of going through the same sort of job thing that you described here. Now I know what I need to do. So thank you.
I did say in the first part of the article that, of course, there are plenty of times that suffering is not self-induced, just that this post was not about those times.
Why would someone consider ending it when they are still breathing and relatively healthy? As long as you are healthy you can do most anything and everything regarding your own behavior.
They see no way out. How many times have you presented a view point that the person you are talking to did not ever consider the perspective that you are offering? Consider someone that does not have a different perspective that they can draw from, and their decisions keep ending in disaster. At some point, someone might not be able to see any other way to deal with the problems that they are dealing with.
Unfortunately I think most people cant see another perspective especially if it seems like a lot of work. But calling it quits seems a little extreme over something that you haven't honestly tried to overcome. One way has possibilities the other is finality.
Think of it like the elephant and the chain
That would be bad to be stuck for lack of motivation or no confidence.
Or, just not realizing that you could do something different