Photo: notkanikabatra / TikTok
What is it like inside the mind of a sociopath?
By Deauna Roane — Written on Oct 23, 2022
Sociopaths are people who suffer from antisocial personality disorder and cannot be diagnosed until adolescence or adulthood. The mental health disorder is characterized by consistently showing no regard for right and wrong, and ignoring the rights and feelings of others.
In short, sociopathy is a mental disorder with a disregard for other people. Sociopaths behave in ways that show no thought of others, and they can be exceptionally deceptive.
Signs and symptoms of sociopath include constant lying without remorse, callousness, difficulty recognizing emotion, manipulation, and arrogance.
A diagnosis entails a detailed psychological assessment, and the person must meet at least 3 of the criteria listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR).
One such person who claims to be a diagnosed sociopath is a TikToker named Kanika Batra.
Batra is a former Miss Universe and Miss World finalist, as well as a model, author, and mental health advocate from Sydney, Australia who wrote the novel "Honeytrap" in 2020. The TikTok influencer also acts and sings opera.
As a high-functioning sociopath, Batra uses her videos to discuss the realities and hardships of living with highly stigmatized personality disorders.
She states in her YouTube About Me page that her goal is to use her channel to "educate individuals on Cluster B personality disorders (ASPD, BPD, HPD, and NPD), as well as help out others who suffer from these disorders and give them a voice."
In one of Batra's TikToks, she discusses how she believes she got the disorder, and says it's a mixture of nature and nurture.
She says that ASPD runs in her family, and that her father was a strict authoritarian who made her believe she wasn't allowed to cry or show emotion.
Another of her TikToks explains how she got diagnosed.
Batra says she went to see a psychiatrist due to general depression to get Valium. She lied to the psychiatrist for 6 months until he gave her the Valium. She then saw a correspondence from her psychiatrist to her GP, where she was diagnosed with clinical depression and ASPD.
Another time, when Batra was in New York for surgery, she states that she made "some dramatic comments about wanting to unalive myself" and professionals took it seriously. They gave her an option of going to Bellevue or staying at the hospital she was in.
The primary psychiatrist didn't believe anything Batra was saying because she had ASPD. At her final evaluation, Batra had 12 doctors present, who gave her the same diagnosis as the first psychiatrist: depression and ASPD.
Here, Batra discusses discusses the pros and cons of living with sociopathy.
A big pro of hers is that she has no anxiety, which allows her to go for "job opportunities I'm often not capable of or qualified for."
"Somehow I always manage to get the job... If I get to the interview stage, I always get the job," she says.
Another pro is having no guilt or empathy, which she believes is why she will do anything she has to do to "get to the top."
But one con she brings up is her lack of consistency. She explains that there have been 2-3 jobs where she just stopped going, and how she takes time off by saying her grandmother has died: "My grandmother has now died five times. Unfortunately, she's still alive."
Another popular video of Batra's discusses what it's like to date her, and people like her, with sociopathy.
She explains that she dates men and women "very differently," and that she is "very, very picky about who I give my time to." She states that status and money don't really do it for her, but looks do.
She breaks down her differences in dating men and women. For men, if there is no stimulating conversation in the early dating stages, she will ghost him. Games also do not work with her: "I like a man to pursue me properly," she adds.
Batra admits that she is a lot kinder when it comes to women because she can relate to them more, saying, "I treat women with a lot of respect because I know what they've been through." Batra also says that she takes on the more dominant role and often pays for things while courting.
When it comes to women, she loves them intensely and is very enthusiastic.
In another video, Batra explains that when it comes to revenge, her diagnosis as a sociopath comes out fully.
Batra states that she has a very hot-tempered head and she tends to have the urge to lash out immediately. She physically has to hold herself back so she can get "proper revenge by being detached and cold."
Batra explains that you need to "play nice" but to remember what these people who have wronged you have done.
She then gives an example of a friend of hers being degraded by a man who said she was only good for sex. Batra got revenge by cultivating a three-month relationship with him to the point where she made him drive 8 hours to see her. In the end, she stood him up, "because he deserved it."
She ends her video by saying that it's a lie that revenge doesn't make you feel better. "It does," she concludes.
A common question people have for sociopaths is whether or not they actually enjoy hurting people. For Batra, it's a bit complicated.
Though she enjoys revenge, Batra mentions that she does enjoy hurting people, but in a way that creates chaos. This is because she is constantly bored and this sometimes ends up hurting people. But she swears she isn't a sadist.
Because sociopaths tend to lie without remorse and are very manipulative, it's a good idea to take Batra's claims of being a diagnosed sociopath into account.
More for You:
Deauna Nunes is an associate editor for YourTango who covers pop culture, lifestyle, astrology, and relationship topics. She's had bylines in Emerson College's literary magazine, Generic.