This is a throwaway, my brother knows my real account.

For clarity's sake, I think I should say I'm probably better classified as antisocial or at least someone with antisocial tendencies according to my old therapist but am definitely not truly a sociopath (which is also not really a scientific term anymore). But I think it still counts as a valid response, as you may not get too many.

I think I realized that I was at least "different" when I started lying about or exaggerating emotions that either weren't there or were extremely minimal. I'd start ignoring friends who were beginning to annoy me and not feel bad at all when they were upset about it. I didn't really care, I guess I still don't, and I didn't think too much more about it until at 19 I was caught in some shady long-term lying to my parents, and my dad pointedly asked me if I felt guilty about it. It seemed like he was quizzing me, and I realized that at least of couple of those questions combined with the situation were things that I recognized as markers of psychopathy from a psych class. I looked it up again after that conversation, and I fit almost every marker. Compulsive lying, impulsiveness, general lack of remorse, superficial charm, etc. I moved across the country from my best friends a couple months ago and felt nothing except more boredom because there was less to do. But the big difference for me is a lack of behavioral problems like animal cruelty, fire-starting, that type of thing. There's been some very minor shop-lifting or vandalism, but nothing real. I thought I was pretty good at seeming "normal" to the therapist they made me see after then aforementioned lying incident, but when he would combine what I told him and some stuff I guess my parents told him, apparently it was pretty obvious that I had at least some level of APD.

I don't know, I don't think I'm that fucked up. I can get attached to some fictional characters, and I'm invested in a couple sports teams, so my life is not entirely devoid of emotion. I can do social interaction fairly well because I find politeness more important than anything else when interacting with other people (seriously, nothing makes me angrier than someone being impolite), and if you knew me, I would probably not be on your list of "People I Hate." I do best in friendships where we can just chill and I don't have to pretend to care or put on a front. I'm not in danger of killing anyone, all I want to do is get a job and go hiking all the time. So no, I'm not trying to change anything, I'm fine.

The best way I heard it described was on a tv show, where a character says "I don't enjoy killing people, I just don't feel very bad about it either." If you replace killing with "upsetting," then that's pretty much me. I don't go out of my way to exploit or manipulate, but if I need to do it to get what I want, I'm not too fussed about it.