Come crawling to me when your impulsivity surrenders you to the deepest depths of financial, legal, or interpersonal hell.  I’m sick and tired of individuals assessing themselves in the absence of clear and conclusive evidence of psychopathy.  It takes far more than a few poor and rash decisions here and there to reach the heights of psychopathic impulsivity.  Let’s talk about a complete disregard for your life.  Let’s talk about a complete disregard for the lives of others.  If your actions aren’t off the cuff to the point where lives are potentially ruined, you probably do not meet the criteria for psychopathic impulsivity.  I’ve discussed numerous times my patterns of risky and impulsive alcohol and substance abuse as well as my excessive and consistent spending that has left me more than underwater.  Sexual promiscuity also ties in as people like me tend to find any and all hookups with little concern to anything but the moment.  Simply put, your definition of impulsivity and mine probably differ to a great degree.

Changing jobs at a whim; changing partners at a whim; choosing activities in the spur of the moment that literally put one’s life in danger – all of these and more mark the impulsive psychopath.  There is no stability in the life of a psychopath.  People are added and removed without the slightest consideration to their value in the past, present, nor future.  No consideration is made to doing anything correctly – only quickly and with great “fun.”  Psychopaths look for the shiniest prize in the moment, uncaring as to whether the shine hides complete ruin.  Stories of psychopaths killing people before they can realize the action they are committing comes to mind.  Psychopaths leaving a trail of destruction at a job only to jump to a new one as soon as it presents itself … ad infinitum … are common place.  Combine the psychopath’s impulsivity with their antisocial proclivities, and there will be a great mess indeed.

Lives hang in the balance of the psychopath’s whims.  Ill-advised and poorly thought out, psychopaths tend to leave a trail of destruction for others and themselves as they sway to their own dance.  I suppose if I could do my life over, I would try to show more mindfulness and avoid those risky and reckless actions that have defined my life.  Or, maybe I would simply find other avenues for my recklessness.  Either way, the psychopath tends not to have this mindfulness; I certainly did not until several years of therapy were completed, and even then, I am unsure to what extent I can control myself in the future.  In many ways, it is this impulsivity that it is responsible for most of the ruinous behavior of the psychopath.  So please, tell me more about your own impulsivity.  I guarantee it does not match that of the psychopath and I guarantee you are deluding yourself.