While I originally made this group to help myself wiggle out of any potential social retaliation or cancelling from others who may take offense to what I say, I realized it became a great opportunity to die-down some of the stigma towards those who have ASPD. Personally, I've struggled with fitting in since I was a kid. Back then I was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD, I was a really stupid child and hated authority. So much so that even to this day if I'm ever chewed-out or reprimanded in some serious way, I'll usually get unreasonably angry (even if I know I'm in the wrong sometimes) and look for any way to hurt or distance myself from that person. (I don't think I'd make it very far in the army without trying to shoot my drill sergeant or someone else like private Pyle from FMJ lol)

But after I got diagnosed a few years ago (not too long after I really got into the fandom) it put into perspective how I was on a personal level. I'm naturally very conductive of my own thoughts, well as much as someone with ADHD can be, so I find myself self-reflecting and pondering a lot more than the average person. I used a lot of my time thinking about how I treat people, and especially friends and family; I realized I didn't care when someone I knew died, I realized I didn't really love or care about my close relatives like my brother, and I even realized that the reason I liked my best friends were ultimately selfish desires to keep around people who entertain me and reinforce my own self-confidence. No one I cared about had that much more than a simple explanation as to why I truly hung around them. Slowly but surely everything felt a bit more fake and I felt more isolated and out of control to my own actions and behaviors as a result. My time getting banned on endless amounts of servers, forums, and websites made sense as I found my inability to read the room contributed to my already unapologetic nature.

I don't want to repeat the same mistakes going forwards and this group is a way that I, and possibly others, can potentially mitigate some of the damage we do to our own characters as a result of our lack of empathy. Of course this doesn't mean we're free from consequence, but hopefully people will find a way to not take offense to our words or opinions- much like those with Tourette's, Bipolar-Disorder, or Autism. I don't know how bad I'll mess up in the future, like have so many times already, but hopefully by explaining my position to others beforehand might get them to sympathize with me a bit before they lose their temper and mass report me.

A lot of what I say may be interpreted as "edgy" or "contrarian" but I assure you, it all comes from a very dethatched and apathetic world view I have because of my personality disorder. Nothing I say or do is done out of cruelty or hate, I'm just naturally a bad person despite my best attempts.

The purpose of this journal is to explore and explain the differences between sociopaths and psychopaths since there is a lot of confusion and mixing up of the two. For starters, there are a lot of sociopaths, most of us who have ASPD fall under this category and generally seen as the more violent, emotional, and flexible of the two. Sociopaths, unlike psychopaths, do usually possess the ability to feel some empathy for others and some of us can even selectively flip a mental switch in our minds to activate the ability to feel for others, though these feeling are usually shallow and rely on our own tricking of the mind to see ourselves in a certain position and relate purely on self-pity. In addition, we're more likely to commit crimes, lash out, ignore social norms, and fight out against any perceived authority, justifying all of it in our minds naturally and usually feeling no regret after the fact.

Moving on to psychopaths, someone born with ASPD right out the gate is typically considered a psychopath, these individuals, unlike sociopaths, have never possessed empathy in their entire lives. Psychopaths "learn" right from wrong by observing others while masking their true nature. Generally speaking, you will probably never know or even suspect if you are speaking to a psychopath if they don't want you to. Psychopaths are widely considered completely dethatched from inner-monologue or anything resembling dreams that do not include physical material wealth and advancement. Psychopaths don't care what others think of them, they don't care even remotely about the welfare of their friends or family, and they rarely go out of their way to help anyone unless it directly benefits them in some way. People who fall under this category of ASPD usually have an easier time in society blending in since they have practice masking their condition since birth; Psychopaths will usually flourish in climbing the social and economic ladder.

While a sociopath may have grandiose goals, becoming a painter, a soldier, a criminal, a writer, or even just a plain old freeloader, a psychopath will very likely use their intellect and manipulation skills to become a doctor, a lawyer, a CEO, a celebrity, or a politician. For more information surrounding the differences between sociopathy and psychopathy, go here: https://www.simplypsychology.org/ps.....ociopathy.html

NOTE: Most information and support surrounding sociopaths and psychopaths is written by those who know nothing about it or have never experienced it personally in any way. Additionally, most of what is known about sociopathy, and ASPD in general, comes from those diagnosed in prison since most with ASPD don't know about it, or do and don't want others to know since it could paint a target on their back. Because of all of this, people with ASPD are usually only known as criminals from prison statistics, serial-killers from movies, and genocidal murderers in history. Most of us are relatively normal, if not a bit different. Chances are you know someone with ASPD and don't realize it, just look for that "a**hole" friend in your group who can't help but get in trouble- or the one who never gets in trouble.