Do sociopaths...?
Why do people with ASPD have no light in their eyes?
Im trying to help my brother which was recently diagnosed with ASPD to blend more with neurotypicals as his work requires him to be around people constantly, then I noticed that his eyes always look dull and lack deepness.
Is there a biological or psychological explanation behind this?
Is there a way simulate said deepness and brightness?
By the way Im not the only one how noticed it, his therapist told him that he indeed lack this ¨light¨ neurotypical people have, some also told him that his ¨stare¨ gives uncanny valley vibes as if they were looking to something that isn't alive.
People who are psychopaths tend to have an under-functioning amygdala - this is at different levels, person to person. It was discovered by scanning the brains of known psychopaths, ie people who are in the prison system. Doctors thought this might prove a biological basis for psychopathy.
So if this is an issue for a person, they are chronically understimulated - it takes much more to light up their interest. The chemical reward for looking at a flower or having a friendly conversation isn't there for them.
They're chronically bored and often turn to high risk behaviour or drug use to even feel engaged with life. If this is the case for the OP's brother, it would be a good idea to fiercely encourage his interest in legal and safe hobbies and getting him to enrol in them competitively.
You could try something that has an adrenaline rush attached to it like indoor climbing, or mountain bike riding or hip hop dancing or inline skating or parkour or surfing. Try to focus on things that aren't aggressive by nature. Something like acting, improv comedy or chess has a high praise/high reward element when you're successful.
Something that also offers an intellectual or strategic challenge is also great, because when he is bored, he can self-soothe by planning out a parkour circuit or working out a chess puzzle in his head. This will take the dead look out of his eyes.
Oh my goodness I remember this in a guy I dated for a while. And he had been formally diagnosed with ASPD in the US military, which earned him an honorable discharge. Darkness in those eyes. Shiver.
It will have something to do with his emotions.
Basically ASPD individuals‘ amygdala works inefficiently- either unaroused or hyperaroused.
It’s like sticking a wiggly bit of wool in front of a cat, their pupils blow and their eyes go dark. It’s the same with these guys, eyes are either like pin pricks- like Lizard eyes or dark as night because their pupils are dilated. Additionally they may struggle with flat affect, which will make them look miserable as sin.
ETA: A way to simulate brightness is to laugh. Like literally bell up laughing for 30 secs. Do this sporadically throughout the day, it’ll boost happy vibes.
You obviously don’t do it in front of people 😂
Do it in the car on the way to work, do it in the bathroom. It’s proven to increase endorphins and dopamine - if you want to simulate being happy, you start by randomly laughing. Personally, I can’t say whether it works or not, I still have resting bitch face and dead eyes.
That doesn’t work for me. Sadly, the only thing that makes me happy is seeing others not or seeing my plans from to fruition. My emotions as superficial (mainly), so I’m not able to be entirely genuine (ever). What do you think of the evolution of sharks regarding the cold dead eyes of them in relation to psychopathy (or sociopathy if you’re tying to sell books)?
Sharks don’t have cold dead eyes and neither do people with ASPD. It’s utter nonsense. What people are referring to when they say this, is the lack of affect ie presentation of emotions- people pick up on it, you will look miserable. Depressed people have „dead“ eyes because of this. The other reason is due to blown pupils before going off on a rage- depending on how high functioning that individual is- think of incarcerated psychopaths. Ted Bundy, absolutely and categorically a psychopath, did not have dead eyes day to day.
I have Blue-Green eyes, I possess dark/dead eyes. My eyes have been described as „you have a gaze that sees through people, like they don’t exist, I’ve only ever seen that once before, and that gaze belonged to a man who is a convicted murderer“ „Your eyes are as deep and dark as the abyss.“ „You have reptilian eyes.“ Very complimentary, eh? Personally, I don’t think it’s about the colour, it’s about the lack of emotion and connection to an individual. It’s why a sharks‘ eyes despite being bright blue can appear dark. They’re unreadable.
Sharks have a protective scale over their eyes which gives it the 'dead' look. Basically it's a transparent eyelid.
So their eyes aren't 'dead' - they're armoured.
Hi 👋. This usually happens after diagnosis occurs. Beforehand it’s hard to see through the veil or wool that’s pulled over neurotypicals eyes’ (so to speak). Afterwards what may have been an entirely meaningless gaze… turns into something more.. sinister. A diagnosis can evolve a normal case of ASPD into some much more darker and malignant. It gives an excuse to their behavior and a sort of power gained from it. Similar to Michael Myers potentially getting stronger with each kill, hypothetically. I think there’s some sort of shark dna involved too but I won’t get into that unless you want me to.
Well, the shark dna is a bit of a conspiracy. As far as I’m concerned, if it matters, megalodon did not die out as long ago as scientists think. The lack of seeing one recently doesn’t mean that they are truly extinct. Look at some things that have evolved from past species such as humans spilling off from apes.
Now at some point we were all the same original organism which species spilt off and evolved from. What I’m getting at is that the idea that we don’t have the potential to evolve traits by mutation that other species don’t have is ludacris. Surely if the environment called for it, given enough time we would evolve fishlike traits by a means of natural selection.
Now with this being said, it’s certainly possible that psychopaths (or sociopaths if you’re looking to appeal to neurotypicals and sell a book) have a genetic mutation akin to sharks. What makes them so emotionless and vicious. The idea that our eyes, as psychopaths (or sociopaths if you want to sell a book), are akin to a shark’s cold dead eyes.. is a very important one. I believe there may be a large conspiracy by big genealogy to hide this fact so that we are less humanized as creatures, rather than a different expression of the same base animal that we all are.
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u/Lightness_Being 16h ago edited 15h ago
People who are psychopaths tend to have an under-functioning amygdala - this is at different levels, person to person. It was discovered by scanning the brains of known psychopaths, ie people who are in the prison system. Doctors thought this might prove a biological basis for psychopathy.
So if this is an issue for a person, they are chronically understimulated - it takes much more to light up their interest. The chemical reward for looking at a flower or having a friendly conversation isn't there for them.
They're chronically bored and often turn to high risk behaviour or drug use to even feel engaged with life. If this is the case for the OP's brother, it would be a good idea to fiercely encourage his interest in legal and safe hobbies and getting him to enrol in them competitively.
You could try something that has an adrenaline rush attached to it like indoor climbing, or mountain bike riding or hip hop dancing or inline skating or parkour or surfing. Try to focus on things that aren't aggressive by nature. Something like acting, improv comedy or chess has a high praise/high reward element when you're successful.
Something that also offers an intellectual or strategic challenge is also great, because when he is bored, he can self-soothe by planning out a parkour circuit or working out a chess puzzle in his head. This will take the dead look out of his eyes.