People Who Encountered A True Psychopath Share The Tell-Tale Signs They Spotted

Coming face-to-face with evil personified.

The truth is, we all do it several times a day.

During my years in hospitality, I felt like a magnet for lunatics.

There are always ways to suss them out.

Small details and nuances that are dead giveaways are always right there.

We just have to stay alert enough to notice.

Redditor xXVintageCultureXx wanted to hear about the red flags people should look for if they believe they've encountered a psycho, so they asked:

"People who've interacted with a psychopath, what made you realize they were one?"

EMPTY

"Used to work as a mental health nurse, so saw people with diagnosed psychopathic traits. The thing that got me was their eyes. They could have the most brilliant, dazzling smile and have a contagious laugh, but their eyes were just flat, empty, lifeless. Sent chills down my spine every time."

- kiwirn

Chills...

"I told this story once before."

"I met a woman at a party who gave me this kind of chilling suspicion. She was sociable and easily commanded to attention of every small gathering she was in. She leaned on the woes of her job to keep the conversation about her."

"She was a nurse working in the maternity ward, and she went on about the hours and the pay and everything. To change the vibe, I asked her what she liked about her job, and she lit up."

"But what she said didn’t come down to her coworkers, or helping people, or making a difference; her answer amounted to power. She absolutely glowed as she described how fragile new mothers are, and how many subtle things could go wrong. She was proud to say how she knew when a mother wasn’t going to make it through the night without complications, and how she was the only nurse on the floor to be the one who could help the mother. She loved how she was in control over a precious and delicate thing that could not be replaced."

"I remember feeling deeply uncomfortable by her answer, and that smile of hers. I still remember that smile. Others around us at the time picked up on it, too."

- actually-a-horse

Smothered

"My former spouse."

"She was charming, charismatic, beautiful, manipulative, a pathological liar, emotionally and financially abusive."

"I dropped her off at the hospital so she could take over watching her mom to give her aunt and uncle a reprieve."

"Aunt and uncle informed me MIL was doing well."

"I drove home. She called me 20 minutes later to say her mom had suddenly died."

"She smothered her mother to death."

"After our divorce, I met with her stepmom and SIL to talk about things. Unsolicited, they said they believed she smothered her mom. I nodded my head in agreement."

- chienchien0121

Disingenuous...

"It took years for me to realize, but I eventually saw that they never spoke a single word from their mouth that wasn't intended to manipulate and control others. Every single conversation and interaction was manufactured and not genuine - no 'genuine' version of that person exists. They also took every opportunity to subtly put people down if they were threatened by them. Made people (including me) doubt ourselves deeply."

"Also, everything they did to control and manipulate others had plausible deniability because they were so clever and careful about it. Everything was done in between the lines, so it was hard to prove."

"Eventually those people almost always give themselves away, though, in my opinion/experience."

- tangledblinds

Zero Depth

"Everything is a lie. They lie to themselves, and the grandiose facade is so complex and deeply rooted in them that you believe it too at first. Their words do not line up with their actions or reality. Everything is a way to make themselves look better than everyone else, or to put others down and thus themselves higher."

"They view people as a means to an end. Can be extremely charming, outgoing, fun on the surface— but there is literally 0 depth beyond. It’s quite sad when I realized. They sure do know how to reel people in, tell them what they wanna hear, and sell this image of themselves."

- BullseyeFinance

Trauma

"He told me an elaborate story of how his puppy got out, and when he found it, it had been attacked by something, so he had to kill it to end its suffering. Months late, after our relationship ended, I found out he actually just left it in his apartment with no food or water to die."

"He is now in prison for... I actually don't know what for. It's the closest thing I've encountered that screams psychopath. Looking back, the list is long and a huge reason for much of my trauma."

- macwi1km

FACADES

"They put on a mask ALL THE TIME. They treat a specific group of people they deem weak horribly while trying to maintain a good image with anybody else. The closest ppl to them will describe them completely differently than a colleague or a stranger they just met. And before u say everyone is like that, NO this is veryyy different."

- TakeMeBack2016

Progressions...

"Psychiatrist here. I’ve met several men with true antisocial personality disorder through my work, no women yet, and it is truly unsettling. Some of their earliest diagnostic behaviors include killing animals as children, although it had often progressed to violence toward other people (I will keep the details vague for anonymity). There is indeed often a legal history for those who make it to the inpatient unit, but many of these individuals in the general public can be extremely charismatic and successful.

- _sciencebooks

I Started to Catch the Lies.

"I like to think I'm pretty good at reading people, but they'd stare at me sometimes when we were in bed together, and I'd simultaneously feel like they cared for me and that they were about to attack me at the same second. I could never fully read that look behind their eyes; it was like it was ebbing and flowing between love and hate."

"It would create this push and pull in my gut where I was drawn to them but afraid of them. I started to catch the lies. I watched their movements change when no one was looking. Every word was calculated to manipulate something or someone. Their emotions were mimicking others rather than their own."

"I got out before they hurt me and, in the process, found out what they'd done to many, many others. If you're reading this, you and your sibling should be in jail."

- perhapsalemon

Manson Level

"Dude had a couple of people bowing down on their knees in front of him, praying through him to Jesus or something. He was really good at reading people and manipulating them. Charles Manson type stuff."

- Ayy0ne

NOPE

"He was charming the first two years, but once we got engaged, he locked in. Controlled all my money, friends, and time outside of the apartment. It took a physical altercation that I successfully defended myself from to escape, I mean, he had everything from me possession-wise and socially-wise. It happened so fast, too."

"When I got away a few years later and he did a week in jail and some anger classes, I saw him again, and he smiled and came up to me like nothing ever happened. I literally stared him dead a** in the eyes (it was a public Panera Bread) and just said firmly "nope" and left. He didn't follow me."

"That was years ago."

- lokoinov2

All about them...

"They are incredibly selfish, but they don’t make you feel they are being selfish. Instead, you eventually see they don’t care about you, and that when they do nice things, it’s actually for themselves more than you. You are easily ignored when you have no value left for them."

"I suppose that some of these people are good in that they can move on from you, and you can just completely forget about them, even though you are related."

- typesett

The world really is full of a bunch of crazy people.

Stories like these make me never want to go outside.

I've been left stunned by the true colors of some people.

It's frightening to think that psychopaths walk among us.

They wander around in all shapes and sizes.