The terms ‘psycho’ and ‘sociopath’ get thrown around a lot in movies and pop culture. But when you personally meet an actual psychopath or sociopath, it can be bone-chilling.
In a brutally honest AskReddit thread, people who are related to psychopaths shared the heart-stopping moments when they were legitimately scared for their lives. Keep scrolling to read their experiences.
Just be warned that some of these stories are so emotionally intense that they might not be for everyone.
#41
My mother once tackled me to the ground and pressed a pair of scissors to my throat, threatening to slash it open, because I didn't turn on the porch light *before* I saw her car pulling up the hill to our house.
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13points
#42
Sister-in-law (wife’s sister) was k***ed by her estranged husband, who then k***ed himself. In the weeks leading up to his final acts, we found evidence that he was outside our house at night, including leaving (x-rated) pictures on our front porch of him and my wife’s sister taken years earlier. He wanted us to know he was around/also besmirch his wife’s rep maybe. Not sure what was going on in his mind. Also beer bottles, cig butts in the yard. So he was sitting out there for extended periods of time. Filed a police report/they could do nothing. Months after her death, we learned he had his older son (7 at the time—he and his little brother would have sleep overs at our house, my kids were same age. Wife’s sister would also occasionally take refuge at our home) draw a map of the inside of our house, including bedrooms/who slept where. He was making plans apparently. F****d up times (summer of 2001). Family is still kind of f****d up, difficult to fully recover/lots of counseling. His f*****g reach has extended way beyond the grave.
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13points
#43
A pretty short story.
I worked at a local grocery store and one of the guys nine years my senior and I has become now and then friends. We would talk about anime, or whatever. He was friends with my friend Stephanie, too.
I quit that job when I got a better offer closer to home. He started showing up there daily to buy candy and talk to me. I was well out of his way, and he had never been to that store before I worked there. I was genuinely scared because this guy had meltdowns and often quit and returned to his job, and lived his life as if everyone should have revolved around him. Very much the anime protagonist. Women were supposed to be in awe of him. Men were supposed to be jealous. The whole nine yards. Running like he's from Naruto... He was a living breathing dumpster fire.
I got a boyfriend in the midst of this. And this is where things got weird. He started showing up more than once a day, still buying things. It was as if he was checking on me. The closer we got to a trip we all had planned downstate, the more I worried. So I told my boyfriend I wanted to ride separately rather than all together.
He agreed, and shortly after my friend contacted me saying it may have been for the better. The guy kept saying while they shared a break at work that he would stab us with whatever was sharp in the car if we were remotely affectionate to each other, and he wanted to k**l my boyfriend at the convention, hurting me, tying me up and making me watch him do it. Said I shouldn't be dating someone nine years my senior (I was 21, boyfriend was 30) even though he was the same age as my boyfriend. I should have been his. He would make me his, etc.
When he actually saw my boyfriend, he chickened out and ghosted the entire time we were at the convention. I never left my boyfriend's side. I didn't want to be alone and targeted. I didn't want my boyfriend to be targeted either. He left me alone after that. Just disappeared. My friendship with my friend who warned me ended not long after that, either... I have always wondered if she had something to do with orchestrating it all.
I worked at a local grocery store and one of the guys nine years my senior and I has become now and then friends. We would talk about anime, or whatever. He was friends with my friend Stephanie, too.
I quit that job when I got a better offer closer to home. He started showing up there daily to buy candy and talk to me. I was well out of his way, and he had never been to that store before I worked there. I was genuinely scared because this guy had meltdowns and often quit and returned to his job, and lived his life as if everyone should have revolved around him. Very much the anime protagonist. Women were supposed to be in awe of him. Men were supposed to be jealous. The whole nine yards. Running like he's from Naruto... He was a living breathing dumpster fire.
I got a boyfriend in the midst of this. And this is where things got weird. He started showing up more than once a day, still buying things. It was as if he was checking on me. The closer we got to a trip we all had planned downstate, the more I worried. So I told my boyfriend I wanted to ride separately rather than all together.
He agreed, and shortly after my friend contacted me saying it may have been for the better. The guy kept saying while they shared a break at work that he would stab us with whatever was sharp in the car if we were remotely affectionate to each other, and he wanted to k**l my boyfriend at the convention, hurting me, tying me up and making me watch him do it. Said I shouldn't be dating someone nine years my senior (I was 21, boyfriend was 30) even though he was the same age as my boyfriend. I should have been his. He would make me his, etc.
When he actually saw my boyfriend, he chickened out and ghosted the entire time we were at the convention. I never left my boyfriend's side. I didn't want to be alone and targeted. I didn't want my boyfriend to be targeted either. He left me alone after that. Just disappeared. My friendship with my friend who warned me ended not long after that, either... I have always wondered if she had something to do with orchestrating it all.
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12points
#44
I was away in another city but this was what my baby bro told me.
So my parents were watching after a nephew from Mexico for about a week. He was about 10 years old and whenever my 14 year old baby bro or my mom would tease him about being “super macho” he would threaten to k**l our cat. My mom would just tell him not to say that and to stop thinking like an idiot. My brother kept an eye on him. The day before the last day, my mom told her nephew to go shower because he stink. “F**k you he said” and grabbed our cat and threw him at my mom. My parents said all they saw was my brother getting up from the couch and slugged him across the face, dragged his a*s to the bathroom, threw him in the shower, and told him to take a bath with a toaster. That night, that little psycho came into my brother room and was rummaging through my bro’s knife collection. Here is where it kinda gets comical. My brother SLEEPS with his wood chopping hatchet. So when my bro heard s**t in his room, he woke up with his hatchet in hand ready to attack. Parents rushed in to see what the commotion was all about.
Apparently he was trying to find my brother’s skinning knife to k**l our cat. He had that knife pointed at my brother. No one slept that night. My parents told his grandparents that he needs help, but typical Mexican grandparent: “he just needs to find Jesus and pray”.
THE F****R IS 10 YEARS OLD.
Note: my brother likes Russian stuff, seizing the means of production, and everything history and outdoors related. I’ve never seen him actively hurt an animal, and will go outside to chase the coyotes away when they get close to our dogs and property (out cat is indoors). He collects knifes with designs on their handles for the aesthetics of it but has his own “cool” knifes.
So my parents were watching after a nephew from Mexico for about a week. He was about 10 years old and whenever my 14 year old baby bro or my mom would tease him about being “super macho” he would threaten to k**l our cat. My mom would just tell him not to say that and to stop thinking like an idiot. My brother kept an eye on him. The day before the last day, my mom told her nephew to go shower because he stink. “F**k you he said” and grabbed our cat and threw him at my mom. My parents said all they saw was my brother getting up from the couch and slugged him across the face, dragged his a*s to the bathroom, threw him in the shower, and told him to take a bath with a toaster. That night, that little psycho came into my brother room and was rummaging through my bro’s knife collection. Here is where it kinda gets comical. My brother SLEEPS with his wood chopping hatchet. So when my bro heard s**t in his room, he woke up with his hatchet in hand ready to attack. Parents rushed in to see what the commotion was all about.
Apparently he was trying to find my brother’s skinning knife to k**l our cat. He had that knife pointed at my brother. No one slept that night. My parents told his grandparents that he needs help, but typical Mexican grandparent: “he just needs to find Jesus and pray”.
THE F****R IS 10 YEARS OLD.
Note: my brother likes Russian stuff, seizing the means of production, and everything history and outdoors related. I’ve never seen him actively hurt an animal, and will go outside to chase the coyotes away when they get close to our dogs and property (out cat is indoors). He collects knifes with designs on their handles for the aesthetics of it but has his own “cool” knifes.
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10points
