dexter moments?

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the showtime series dexter, im sure some of you have watched it, and if you havent google it.
but there are times that dexter goes through things that seem scaringly similar to things ive gone through... not the physical surrounding part, but his thought process. in the books the shows based off of i find we share even more in common.
for instance he starts wondering where his dark passenger has gone and becomes seriously worried about his futrure without it. i nearly froze after i read that part. im still trying to figure out if im autistic or sociopath or something else altogether.. so im wondering if anybody else has had a similar experience.

Are you doing the whole emotionless/unable-to-relate-to-people thing? If so, research schizoid personality disorder, otherwise known as "extreme introversion". If you don't routinely take advantage of other people for your own benefit, you're probably not a sociopath.

im more of a misssing most of emotions thing... like an empty space inside(dexter ep1) and i understand people usually much greater than they understand themselves. i spent my entire life after age 10 studying others how they interact and what they feel.
this does leave me in a position to take great advantage of others, but in some bizzare fear of what monster, or dark pasenger(there is one moment in my life that i can almost say i felt him inside) lies beneath, just waiting to take control i only use my great power to help others who deserve help according to my logic. my study has also allowed me to fake what emotions i am missing quite convincingly.
if your curious ive got another thread that describes me some more here :
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt123128.html

Still don't think you're a sociopath. You're emotionless and/or unaware of your own emotions, that's true; but there are multiple causes for that. If you were using your stand-back-and-analyze-people thing as a way to get the upper hand on people, I'd say sociopath. But you're not doing that, so you evidently have a conscience, however emotionless a conscience it may be, however much you see "cruelty" as an emotionless fact (referring to the guy running over the dog in your linked post here). There's a lot more to being a sociopath than not feeling much emotion or connection to other people.

i only used sociopath above in the same way somebody would use "a-z". i used "austic to sociopath" . i dont really think im a sociopath, atleast not complete.

Sociopaths and autistics are at social levels polar opposites.
Although neither of them feel an intuitive sense of what should be done, sociopaths usually learn it quickly and use it to take advantage of others.
The actual name for sociopaths and psychopaths is people with anti-social personality disorder.
They are also glib, and seem normal.
Sometimes they are very intelligent, which makes them a great threat to others.
They also tend to seek job environments where certain levels of tyranny are accepted.

Dexter is my favorite show. I can't wait to see the new season. I think that a big part of the reason I watch is that I can really relate to him. I have a dark passenger that takes control and I try to hide it but I feel like sometimes it shows through. I put on an act around certain people or at certain places.

The way he relates to people in general, I can relate... The only thing I never really got about Dexter, is he doesn't use people for his own gain really. Well, maybe he does a lot more than I can recognize... but it seems to me, that he is normally reminding himself of what to do or say to appear normal, and would rather them just leave him alone in general. Granted, he's doing it so they won't find out what he does, lol... but when he reminds himself of things, I can relate a lot.

I can relate to that as well. It's like he has to remind himself that people experience social encounters differently than he does so that he doesn't mess them up and give people the wrong idea or impression. However the reasons for reminding ourselves are very different and yet we both want to blend in.

I LOVE Dexter! Oh god, you have no idea how happy I am to see a Dexter thread...

The books are way better than the show, I think. I definitely identify with his thought process. Definitely not his emotional thing, because I feel emotions (usually too much), but the way he sees the world is very much the same as me. We notice similar things, think about people the same way, and make similar social mistakes.
Though I would of course never kill anyone.
But I would jump at the opportunity to cut up someone already dead
In an ideal world I'd love to be a forensic pathologist...

can't sit through the splatter to actually assess the show.

great show. i think the way they make the show allows for some interpretation as they want as many people to identify with aspects of his life as possible. i can't wait till the new season, the last one was the best so far.

My mother got me onto Dexter. She said that she thought I might relate to him. Now I've actually watched it, I'm more than a little disturbed my mother thinks that way about me. Of course I do realise she means the lack of understanding of people, but I still wind her up about it

I'm also very happy to see this Dexter thread! I'm a huge fan and came late to the party - just found out about it a few months ago and caught up on all the seasons - obsessively I might add. Did nothing but WATCH one after the other! What a great show.

I also see his many similarities with trying to appear normal and trying to decipher social situations or the appropriate response. I love that. The fact that he's a serial killer.... well... that is totally separate to me from the other social awkwardness. I can relate to one without assuming I'm the other.

That's what makes him so interesting to watch - He's so law abiding and neat and orderly and normally that person just wouldn't be willing to kill someone - even a bad someone. It's a puzzle, and a great one to watch.

wendygopsychosis - are the books really better?? I didn't read any after seeing the show because I assume they were just the same thing repeated. But if you recommend them I may dive in and they'll help me get through until Sept when the next season is supposed to start!

Oooooh boy, are they better. For one thing, only the first season is in line with the book. After that, the show takes on it's own plot. The characters are very different (cody and aster are both incredibly damaged "mini-dexters," which I think it much cooler) and the plot is different. The books are far more exicting/graphic, and dexter is way more believable. In the show they give him emotions, a sex drive, etc etc...not things he has in the books. In the books literally everything he displays to the world is faked, and it's very cool to get inside his head in a way a tv show can't do.
If you like the show (or even if you don't!) I heavily recommend the books. They're much more interesting and accurate, as well as exciting.

Though, I noticed in the most recent season, the new director seems to be more of a fan of the books than the previous director. The latest season has dexter acting more like himself (for example, the real sociopathic dexter is incapable of love, so he's far less lovey-dovey with rita). And the latest season focuses more on his killing, and less on minor character drama, which is more book-ish. The books follow dexter, and only dexter, making them (in my opinion), more interesting. I like the series because I like dexter, not because I care about the emotional status of laguerta (who, by the way, is killed off rather early in the book series. I was surprised when I watched the show that they keep her, as I read the books first).

Ok, now I'm rambling. I'm going to stop.

tl;dr: read the books, they're great.

GREAT!

Thank you for the information - I'm so getting the books now!

Thanks alot. I appreciate your insights.