In the Serious Thread they mentioned Michelle Carter, the girl who was just found guilty of essentially causing her boyfriend to commit suicide via text. Someone called her a sociopath, I suggested she might be a psychopath, and that sparked a PM conversation where I explained that a lot more people are psychopaths than they realize and a lot more people are psychopaths (especially in the business world) than would make you comfortable. And then it occurred to me: What if I'm a psychopath? Some brief background. There are essentially two schools of thought on identifying psychopaths in a clinical sense: self-reporting, and trained diagnosis. The Robert Hare Checklist (PCL-R) which can really only be administered by qualified professionals in a clinical setting, rather than a self-reported thing. It certainly has it's flaws, but it's like Bud Light -- so ubiquitous that people just shut up and drink it. Then there's the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, more of your craft beer, more accurate in my opinion, which uses self-reporting and checks along two scales: primary psychopathy and secondary psychopathy. Since reckless speculation is fun, here's the two tests: PCL-R LSRP On the PCL-R, I scored a 32 (out of 40), putting me firmly in the fun end of the curve, and above the 30 that is required for a psychopath diagnoses, if this were to be administered in a clinical setting. Only 5.5% of the population who takes the test scores higher than a 30. However, the really interesting results were with the LSRP -- I scored a 4.8 (out of 5) for primary and a 4.4 for secondary psychopathy. For perspective, that puts me higher than 96.8% of the people who take the test, and 98%, respectively. I won't be sharing these results with my wife..... which I know sounds kinda psychopathic. Focus: Take the tests, share your results and discuss it. Alt. Focus: When have you googled something medical and immediately regretted the results? What did you do after that? Alt. Alt. Focus: Many mental disorders exist on a spectrum, and based upon my experiences I like to joke that we're all a little autistic. Where do you think you fall on other spectrums? Have you ever gone down the Internet rabbit hole for things like autism, narcissism, etc.?
First off, can we acknowledge that this chick looks like Richard Dawkins? Spoiler: spoilered for size Spoiler: size spoiler Focus: I scored a 17, pretty below the threshold for psycho.
Focus: I scored a 4 and a 1.1 on the tests. Feeling a little bit superior now, which probably just raised my score. Alt. Alt. Focus: Last year I googled "Why does my wife blame me for everything?" because I wondered what the hell I was doing wrong all the time. It was very eye-opening and the beginning of the end. I learned it wasn't me at all. My (almost ex-) wife fits the BPD profile and many of the narcissistic characteristics, and there's really no recovering from that.
Alt-Focus: I briefly looked up brain surgery for a second because of my brothers experiences, yea some things are best left unknown, like how they get through the skull. I also think anyone with any sort of illness should not go on webMD. Lets say you keep catching colds, and are lethargic for an extended period of time and get tired easily....leukemia may pop up in those results.
Focus: Definitely not a psychopath (scored a 10 on the PCL-R), but (alt-alt focus) the last time I took an autism quiz (and posted the results in a thread here) I was just over the threshold of "strong autism traits."
I too would like to request this. Like the rain man of zoology. Here's a basic test. According to that, I'm definitely on the spectrum (I got a 17). I've always figured I had a mild form of Aspergers, though it could also be co-morbid with something else, or certain traits masquerading as others.
I get bored super easy and am in constant search of the next adrenaline rush. However, I am terrified of heights and my equilibrium is all fucked up, so I do what I can on the ground.
I scored a 13 on the first one, and a 1.9/2.4 on the second. The types of questions on the PCL-R are why I don't put a lot of stock into these tests. Ok, what kind of person has "never" given in to temptation? And how exactly do you define "temptation"? Well, it really depends on what they are offended by, doesn't it? Wouldn't it also be a psychopathic trait to feel like you're in the right every time you've ever been offended? A lot of the questions were way too contextual for a T/F test. I know this one is just a stupid internet test, but you sometimes see stuff like that used as serious research and it just makes me go hmmm... Is questioning the test psychopathic?
I got a 1 on the autism test, and 15/2.8 on the psychopath tests. Having a lot of emotions and apparently being the only person on the planet who doesn't assume all refills are free keeps me pretty low, but being ambitious always kicks me up a few notches on these things, which seems unfair but whatever. (And since it hasn't been mentioned yet, I would be REMISS if I didn't bring up Ronson's The Psychopath Test and how fun of a read it is.) I am really, really bad at going down Dr.Google spirals. There was a couple year stretch a while ago where I was having all these weird symptoms and doctors were running all sorts of tests on me and no one could figure out what was happening so I just kept getting diagnoses that were simply the medical term for the symptoms I came in with (like syncope and an arrhythmia). So of course if the doctors didn't know what was going on clearly I was going to be able to figure it out on my own using the internet, and I convinced myself I had all sorts of things. (Yes re:toddamus, there was indeed a bit where I thought I had leukemia. Although it didn't turn out to be THAT crazy because it eventually was figured out and it was a blood thing, just not a cancer thing.) Now I try to stay away from doing that all that much, but now and then I'll start wondering if maybe they missed something and start falling down the WebMD hole because a bruise is taking a long time to heal or something. I've noticed that diabetes is the new cancer in terms of Dr.Google diagnoses. Used to be that all roads led to cancer, but search pretty much any symptom and it'll tell you you probably have beetus. A few weeks ago I did a search about dry skin looking for some DIY spa treatments and a bunch of the articles were like "yeah you might have dry skin because of the weather or new soap...OR YOU COULD HAVE DIABETES." It's a pretty embarrassing trend.
The rule is simple: if the soda machine is on the customer side of the counter, refills are free; if it's on the employee side of the counter, refills are not free.
Except Chick-Fil-A. The machine is on the employee side and refills are free, even all day at the mall.
I don't feel like I've ever been to a restaurant in the US where fountain soda refills were not free. That includes nice restaurants. But I quit drinking soda 3 or 4 years ago. Have things gotten this bad?; As a side note I quit drinking soda because people told me it made them feel better. I really notice no difference in my life, other than I spend $1-$3 less per meal. It reminds me of the time I went paleo for two months. I did it because people here said it had cleared up everything wrong with them, from back pain, to gout, to acne. It did nothing for me other than make me stressed about the food I was eating. I also got depressed because I had to stop going to dinner parties and out to eat. I lost a little bit of weight, which was nice but the trade off wasn't there.
As much as they charge for soda, "free" is relative, but same here. I can't remember the last place I ate that didn't have free refills, regardless of the location of the soda machine. Maybe audrey had a bad experience eating roller dogs and big gulps at the Quickie Mart where Sonjay Patel was screaming at her for stealing a refill on Grape Fanta.
I gave up soda completely about 3 months ago. Before that, I only had it in mixed drinks and very rarely with pizza or something. I dont feel any different, but I guess its nice to cut a big source of sugar out of my diet. As for free refills - I also just assumed they were free everywhere. The only places that werent were the ones that explicitly stated so.
I've recently fallen off the "no soda" wagon. I've accepted the fact that I'm a stress eater, and also lazy. So I will get fast food more than I should. And I'm getting married in a few weeks, plus the store where I work has been perpetually understaffed for the last year. So that plan to lose weight before the wedding never really worked out. I do want to cut out soda again - but the splitting headaches from caffeine withdrawal are keeping me from really trying that hard. I am excited to wear my suit at the wedding. I went for a custom suit instead of renting a tux, and would recommend that to anybody. Having pants that actually fit is a game changer, instead of looking like Dick van Dyke getting ready to dance with animated penguins.