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People Share The Exact Moment Someone Made Them Think 'That Person's A Psychopath'

People Share The Exact Moment Someone Made Them Think 'That Person's A Psychopath'
Florian Olivo on Unsplash

Warning: some of the stories shared here are extremely graphic and violent.

Who would've thought that Norman Bates, the devoted good boy who ran an adjoining hotel near his home while taking care of mother was a knife-wielding psychopath?


Not audiences who first flocked to movie houses to see Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece thriller, Psycho.

But that was why the movie was shocking at the time. It defied expectations about how we perceive people who may seem completely harmless on the outside but are actually unstable and violent on the inside.

What is your perception of people? Do you think you have an individual pegged as a certain type of person based on appearances?

That was explored when Redditor Shanyy87 asked:

"What seriously made you think “oh well that’s a psychopath?"

It's a mystery how we fall for certain people and we don't see their colors until it's too late.

When The Relationship Went South

"Was my mother's ex-boyfriend."

"Used to be a great guy- even raised me like one of his daughters by doing stuff like paying for my school fees and buying stuff for me. Don't know what happened but his relationship with my mother turned sour and sh*t went crazy:"

"He locked us in the house and locked the fridge so my mother and I just lived in my bedroom and had to buy a fridge for there and live there."

"Would turn off the hot water in the morning and lock the gate so I would have to bath in freezing cold water in winter and have to climb over the walls to get to school, and."

"When she got a court order to get him out of the house, he would stalk her and constantly ram his car into the gate until the early hours of the morning, I think once he snuck into the yard ad smeared chicken blood all over our door."

"All of this in a span of two months."

– zodwa_wa_bantu

A Thing For Knives

"I think I almost hooked up with one once. All the things and had a boner for sharp knives. A friend messaged me to say he used to be with another friend and he beat her up. I never spoke to him again and asked him to stay clear of me."

– Impossible_Fold5059

Manipulative Date

"Girl I went to school with, was totally manipulative (in ways like bullying me for two years then finding out I was self harming and told the teacher to get praise for 'helping out') She was crazy. She bragged about killing her sister’s rabbit. EDIT: also just remembered, she used to use makeup to fake bruises all over herself and claimed she was being abused. Also claimed her mum was verbally abusive. She used to purposely not bring any lunch to school, but claim her parents refused to give her any."

– Rainbow_squirell69

How well do you really know your coworker?

Rescue Animals And Facebook

"I met a psychopath while volunteering with rescue animals."

"Many years ago I volunteered with stray animals. We'd rescue, fix them and find families to adopt."

"After a big rescue, there was a specific animal that was in pretty bad shape and the vet said it should be euthanized. This vet was very reliable and would never suggest such a drastic procedure if the poor animal had a fighting chance."

"Because of this rescue, I was interviewed by a TV station and my picture with the animals appeared in a local newspaper."

"Right after, one of the members of the group said she'd do anything to save that extremely sick animal and wouldn't let it be euthanized The group didn't agree because we had over a hundred animals also in bad shape that could be saved."

"She went rogue, banned everyone that didn't agree with her (leaving the animals with us, except the very sick one) by changing the password to all our pages, organized a big fundraise to save the animal's life and so on."

"She kept posting pictures with the animal on Facebook to gather more money while making up all kinds of lies about the former group members."

"She also lied saying she was a veterinary student when in reality she was only the cashier of a pet store."

"I was too busy with the other hundred animals so just made a new group and didn't pay more attention to her."

"Anyway, months later one of the former group members message me to apologize for not believing in me when we went against that girl."

"The reason she finally believed in me was because she took her own animals to the vet for their annual checkup, and when she commented about how well the sick animal was looking, the vet said 'but he died months ago.'"

"Then she went to the girl's house to confront her, and the girl finally told her what happened: the girl kept the animal's body in her freezer and would take the corpse for pics to get attention and money."

"She was from a upper middle class family and only snapped after I got interviews and not her, so I'm pretty sure she did it all for attention."

"I knew something was wrong with her (attention whore, pathological lier), but the freezed corpse really got me thinking she was a psychopath."

– znhamz

"Major Creep Vibes"

"I used to work with a very manipulative guy. He had a lot of sob stories and I would say about half the people who knew him felt sorry for him. Thought he was a good guy down on his luck, trying to get it together."

"The other half of us got major creep vibes, something was just wrong. I wouldn't even talk to him about anything not work related, would not ever go out after work if he was going to be there. I hated being around him, I warned all the new hires to stay away from him, we had a lot of young girls working there."

"One night he did end up attacking one of my coworkers. Luckily, some people saw and broke it up before he could hurt her too badly and he got fired and banned from the building."

– SailorSpoon11

Haven't we learned by now? Don't F**k With Cats. Or all animals for that matter.

Punishment For Kitty

"The ex-husband of my mother tried to snap our cats neck because she misbehaved and didn't listen to him..."

– Skevinger

Cat Killer

"I used to be a social worker."

"Had a client that I knew something was off about. He gave everyone the creeps, especially the women in our office."

"Part of my job required obtaining background checks. We got one on him and it turns out he was arrested for being a cat serial killer."

"Guy was stealing cats from his neighborhood and killing then in different ways. He stabbed some of them, threw some against walls, broke their necks, etc."

"And the police found them in his freezer."

– ApatheticWithoutTheA

The Lawnmower Man

"I used to live next to this dude who was COMPLETELY F'KED. One day I hear his mower going, nothing out of the ordinary. It was around the time on the day he normally would cut his lawn... but on this particular day it took him a few times to start up his mower, which was brand new. I kept hearing it whir up, then spin down, whir up, spin down, over and over."

"I told my dad we should go over and give him a hand since we have both worked on mowers together. As we peeked over his fence we saw 6 kittens buried up to their necks with their little heads poking out of the ground... God this gets me crying everytime I think of it 😥... they were all screaming and howling, you could clearly see them struggling to get out of the ground... we watched him lift the mower up, it whirred up, and he quickly brought it down on one of the kittens face."

"As we busted through the fence my dad broke his leg on a previously dug hole. He called 911. I went to jail for assault but goddammit it was worth it. As I went to help my dad up I saw that there was no less than 10 more bloodied kitten sized holes surrounding him."

"That still haunts me to this day."

– the_ba5ili5k

"Euthanized" Dog

"A man who lived in my freshman dorm complex at BYU was a natural leader, very charismatic and charming. He went on a Mormon mission to Honduras and when he came back after 2 years, we bumped into each other and he invited me to dinner."

"At dinner, he told me a 'funny' mission story about an elderly widow in Honduras. This woman's little pet dog was sick, and he told her that he'd bring the dog to a vet to be healed. Instead, he 'euthanized' the dog. Shocked, I assumed that the vet had determined that the dog was ill beyond help and compassionately put them down (still not ok without the owner's permission). No - this missionary snapped the dog's neck with his bare hands in the yard outside the widow's house. He was chuckling as he told me as if this was a charming, relatable story. He told the woman that he brought the dog to Jesus. This man seemed absolutely normal, no indication whatsoever that he would do something like this. He should have been sent home from his mission dishonorably."

– Nyctut

The Young Neighbor

"When i was like 11 my neighbour at camp (he was probs like 15 ish at the time) cut up a live frog and tried to cook it alive with a lighter and tinfoil. He then tried to make me and my cousin do things to eachother and pulled his pants down trying to lure us in the outhouse."

– [deleted]

Dark Humor

"A guy I briefly was seeing talked about how much he loved animals. Majored in biology, loved talking about different native creatures wherever we were at. It was actually one of the things that attracted me to him since I’d initially planned on majoring in marine biology due to my love of nature as well."

"Then one day, while laughing, he tells me how him and his friends used to stick firecrackers up bullfrogs’ butts and watch them explode. He thought it was hysterical."

"I started to distance myself because wtf they’re living creatures and what a horrible way to die (he laughed about how it didn’t usually kill them right away). Then his abusive tendencies started coming out left and right, and he was not at all ashamed. Told me how his ex-wife once got so scared she put fists up to him. Called me at 2am once to tell me he’d gotten in a street fight and thought he’d paralyzed the guy (and was proud of it)."

"My dude, you should be on a watch list."

– retroverted_uterus

If your gut tells you something is off about a person, chances are, your instincts are spot on.

Happy dating!

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Old Wives' Tales People Still Believe For Some Reason

"Reddit user the_spring_goddess asked: 'What is an old wives tale that people still believe?'"

Close up of an owl tilting their head to side, looking bewildered
Photo by Josh Mills

The old wives' tales.

They are the stories of legend.

I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.

Where did they originate?

WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!

You don't hear about them as much anymore.

It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.

But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.

Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:

"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"

"Wait an hour to swim after eating."

What a crock!

So many summer hours wasted.

I want revenge for that one.

Say Nothing

Giphy

"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."

LonelyMail5115

"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."

I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA

Say Something

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."

Severe_Airport1426

"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."

crappycurtains

"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."

AlbinoShavedGorilla

Body Temps

"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."

chriseo22

"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."

"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."

apocalypticradish

Arms Down

"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."

Fatmouse84

10 Years Actually

Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine Giphy

"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."

REDDIT

"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."

Gecko-911

I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.

This tale is haunting.

High/Low

Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace Giphy

"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."

LeastFormal9366

"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."

IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI

The Cursed

"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."

"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."

SmoreOfBabylon

Stay In

"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."

"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."

worldbound0514

Dreams and Facts

"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."

"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."

mattshonestreddit

"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."

Darthdemented

Cracked

Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office Giphy

"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."

Choice-Grapefruit-44

"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."

MacyTmcterry

I love my knuckles.

Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

lottery tickets
Erik Mclean on Unsplash

A lot of workers daydream about some day winning the lottery and being able to say goodbye to their job.

Far too many workers are unhappy with their job duties, workplace dynamics or company culture.

But with a taste for luxuries like housing and food, they keep plugging away, year after year.

However not everyone feels that way about their job.

So what are these compelling careers?

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Therapist talking during session
Photo by Mark Williams on Unsplash

Some people stand firmly stand behind their beliefs that everyone would benefit from therapy and that therapy is life-changing.

It's because of the totally life-changing truth bombs their therapist had dropped during their sessions.

Curious, Redditor anonymiss0018 asked:

"What is a little bombshell your therapist dropped in one of your sessions that completely changed your outlook?"

Communication Issues

"'If you don’t have these problems with any other person in your life, why do you think you’re the problematic person in this one?'"

- maggiebear

"I love this. I have a 'friend' who I always seem to run into misunderstandings with. Every time we had a conversation, it somehow turned into a debate even if it was me talking about my day. The conversations were never easy."

"I always evaluate myself first and take into consideration his critiques. He was very good at convincing me that I was contradicting myself or wasn't good at communicating my thoughts."

"I NEVER had this issue with ANYONE else in my life. I kept trying to figure out where the miscommunication was coming from. In the end, I just minimized contact and now I don't run into this issue."

- chobani_yo

"I read this quote somewhere once (and probably have it a bit wrong): 'It's a waste of time arguing with someone who is determined to misunderstand you.'"

- Reddit

Emotional Regulation

"'You can’t control your emotions, but you can control what you do with them.'"

"At the time, I was a young adult who had learned zero healthy emotional regulation skills (only suppression and shaming) growing up, so this blew my mind."

- lil_mermaid

Tough Relationships

"'It sounds to me like you are trying to convince yourself to stay with your girlfriend. I'm not so sure it should be so difficult.'"

"At the time he said this, I remember it was like he said, 'The earth is flat.' I thought he was crazy when he suggested relationships don't need to be difficult. But eventually, I started to realize I was trying to change myself to stay with this person rather than just being who I am."

"It took me three more months to finally break up with her but from that day on, I vowed to never again abandon myself just to be with someone I had convinced myself was better than me."

- metric88

High-Stress Situation

"I was at a high-stress time, and I asked her how people live like this."

"She replied, 'Oftentimes they have cardiac events.' She said it as an urging to care for myself as much as possible."

- KittenGr8r

The End of Alcohol

"I was struggling with my alcoholism, and we were discussing how I had been cutting back."

"She asked what I would consider success, with regard to my drinking."

"I said I wanted to get to a point where it wasn't interfering with my daily life. I wanted to just be able to have a glass of wine at holiday dinners or family gatherings."

"She simply asked me why. Why was it important for me to drink at those times?"

"It was as if she'd turned on a light. Alcohol had always been a key ingredient in every family function, for my entire life. When I smell bourbon, I think of my uncle. When I smell vermouth, I think of my dad. Alcohol ran through almost every happy childhood memory."

"But, even more than that, I was very afraid of the explanation I'd have to give when family and friends asked why I wasn't having a drink. I had tried to quit before but failed. What if I admitted my problem, only to fall off the wagon?"

"When she asked why I didn't want to completely quit, it was the first time I saw that last part of the big picture. I'd be willing to drink myself to death in order to avoid being scrutinized, or judged for possible future failures."

"That was the day I quit. I've been sober since May 6th, 2017. 2,407 days."

- sophies_wish

Acceptance vs. Enjoyment

"'Accepting something doesn’t mean you have to like it.'"

"That took away a lot of my inner conflicts about situations because I could accept a situation without expending energy internally fighting against the injustice of it."

- alibelloc

Emotionally Immature Parents

"You are not responsible for your parents' emotional wellbeing. They are independent adults who have been on this earth for many more years than you."

- SmokedPears

Not So Lazy

"'Why do you think you're lazy?' Then she listed off all the things she knows I'm doing for my family, my job, and my life."

"It kind of blew my mind when I struggled to come up with an example."

"She also described family dysfunction as water. Some families are messed up in a way that everyone can see the huge waves across the surface. Others are better at hiding it, but there's still a riptide that you can't see unless you're also in the water."

"It made me realize that trying to keep the surface from ever rippling doesn't erase what is happening underneath."

- flybyknight665

The Harm in People-Pleasing

"'Why do you make people more comfortable when you are uncomfortable?' when talking about people pleasing and fawning."

- ERsandwich

Agree to Disagree

"'Stop trying to get everyone to agree. When you need everyone to agree, the least agreeable person has all the power.'"

This really changed my outlook on planning family events."

- freef

Grieve and Start Anew

"For context, I had a major TBI (traumatic brain injury), seizures, strokes, and all around not a fun brain time when I was 28."

"They said, 'You have to grieve the loss of yourself.'"

"Most people wanted me to go back to how I was. The f**ked up truth is that part of my brain is dead. The person everyone (including myself) knew died. I needed to grieve the loss of myself."

- squeaktoy_la

Multifaceted Identity

"They told me that my job and career is just a way to make money; it's not my life or identity. That took a lot of pressure off me."

- unfairpegasus

Breaking the Cycle

"They validated me."

"'You always talk about not wanting to do to your daughters what your mom did to you. You worry about it so much in every interaction you have ever had with them."

"But your children are 19 and 21 now. They are happy and healthy and they trust you because you’ve never abused them in any way. So I just want to validate for you that you really have broken that cycle of violence."

"You did that. And you should be proud of it. I’m proud of you for it.'"

- puppsmcgee74

The Grieving Process

"I was constantly bringing up how I felt like a completely different person after my mom died... like there was a marked difference between before and after her death."

"But once, she was asking about my hobbies, I got really into describing all the things I loved to do or at least used to do before I got into a deep depression."

"She was like, 'Wow, you seem very passionate.'"

"And I just sat there like, 'Well, I mean, I can't change what I like to do, they're still fun to do.'"

"And it's like she knew when to take a step back, because it was like, wow, I may be super depressed about my mom passing, but I'm still me. I'm still my passions and those don't go away."

"I don't know, maybe it only makes sense to be, but it really started getting me back on track."

- Hannibal680

Sharing the Load

"I've never really had friends. I've had colleagues and classmates and housemates and people who have hung out with me, but I never really felt close to any of them."

"And I did that thing you see on here sometimes; I stopped reaching out to see if I would be reached out to, and I wasn't, which I took as confirmation that they didn't really want me around, or at the very least, that they wouldn't mind my absence."

"I was talking to my therapist about people I'd been close to in college, and she told me to pick one and talk about him. So I did. After I shared some basic stuff like his name and his major etc., and a couple of anecdotes, she asked me what else I knew about him."

"And I couldn't answer. It wasn't really a broadly applicable bombshell, but she said, 'What else?' and I started crying because I realized that for as simple as the question was, my inability to answer spoke volumes."

"I've never had good friends because I've never been a good friend. I'm withdrawn and reserved and I always made others do the work to drag me out, without ever extending my own friendship in a meaningful way in return. If I wanted to have meaningful relationships with other people, I would have to build them."

"I'm still working on this, but I'm trying to make more offers and extend more friendliness to others in my daily life."

- Backupusername

The discoveries in this thread were incredibly touching and profound; it's no wonder these were lasting concepts for these Redditors.

It's important to keep ourselves open to inspiration and insights from others, as we have no idea how their experiences could help us, or how we could help them.

Aerial view of a church in a small town
Sander Weeteling/Unsplash

There's something comforting about living in a small town.

It's characterized by close communities where neighbors know each other by name and there is an abundance of kindness extended to others.

Gift-giving is a commonality, as is the sharing of recipes, and people going out of their way to help each other in a time of need.

The pace of living in small towns is also a striking contradiction to city life, where crowds of people go about their busy lives without much interaction.

Curious to hear more examples of what small town living is like, Redditor official_biz asked:

"What's the most 'small town' thing you've witnessed?"

These are positive examples of a tight-knit community.

Live Updates

"We have a village Facebook page. Every time the ice cream man drives into the village, the entire page goes ballistic. People send live updates of where the van is and which direction he's heading. The ice cream man has started accepting DMs so he knows which streets to go down."

– PyrrhuraMolinae

Brush With The Law

"I’m from a town of less than 2,000 people. When I worked at the grocery store there people would often drop off stuff for my family members because they didn’t want to drive all the way down to our house. I no longer live there but recently got a call from my daughter. She had been stopped for speeding and handed over her license and insurance which happens to be in my mother’s name. The officer goes 'Hey, you’re Donnie’s granddaughter! I ain’t gonna write you a ticket but I’m telling Donnie when I see him tomorrow cause we’re going fishing.' She replied 'I think I’d rather have the ticket.'”

- Reddit

Roadside Catchup

"The traffic on the 'main street' of my town is so sparse, two drivers going opposite directions can stop and talk to each other for a few minutes without causing any problem."

– anon

When things go wrong, people take notice without incident.

Bank Robbery

"A guy robbed a bank and everyone knew immediately who he was and the teller got mad at him."

– AlexRyang

"A local bank was robbed and one of the tellers told the police to bring her a yearbook from about ten years earlier and she would be able to point the robber out. He had been in the grade before hers in school."

– Strict_Condition_632

Wise Woman

"When I worked at the bank in town there was an older lady that had worked there through 5 mergers."

"She knew everyone, there was a young guy yelling at me one day. She walked out of the back and he immediately quieted. She went off about telling his grandmother that he was treating young women like sh*t. She also said that if he didn’t straighten up not one girl in town would ever marry him she would make sure of it."

– ilurvekittens

Intoxicated Local

"Town drunk was paralyzed and used a motorized wheelchair to get around. I was driving home one Saturday night and said town drunk was passed out in his wheelchair doing circles almost directly in the town square. Had to call his brother who came and picked him up on a rollback truck. Strapped him down and drove off into the cold dark night."

– DoodooExplosion

Grazing Over To The Bar

"In my former small town, there was an older guy who'd lost his license after getting a few DUIs. Every day, he would ride his John Deere lawnmower to the corner bar around 3PM and sit around watching TV and sipping his beer well into the night. Then he'd head the couple miles back home on his mower. He even had a little canvass shell he put on when it rained or got too cold."

– brown_pleated_slacks

It's not surprising how small town people behave differently than those who are from metropolitan areas.

Welcoming Committee

"I lived in a small town. When I moved there, people would ask, 'Whose house did you buy?'"

–MoonieNine

"Move to a small town. 30 years later, you are still the new guy."

– impiousdrifter

"I lived in a small town for most of my childhood but I wasn't "from there" because my grandparents weren't from there."

– raisinghellwithtrees

"Worked with an older guy, relative of the owner of the business, he was 73. I asked him if he was a local, he said 'no his parents moved here when he was two.'"

– realneil

A Busy Day

"Lived in a town of about 5,000: A woman walked into the DMV on a Friday, saw that there were 3 people ahead of her and left to come back another time when they weren't so busy."

– KenmoreToast

Who Let The Dogs Out?

"My dogs got out while i was working. the police called my niece's elementary school (she was a 5th grader) to get her to round them up and take them back home."

– mediocrelpn

"There was a small kennel behind the police station for runaways. They called us saying they had our dog, and moments later our dog showed up home. He broke out of jail."

– Worried_Place_917

While life in a small town sounds appealing, I don't know if I can ever live in one.

I'm so used to life in big cities, I think it would be quite unnerving to adjust in a neighborhood where everyone literally knows your business.

I would be paranoid.

And I'm sure the same could be said of life in the big city.

Would you consider making the switch to life in a different setting?