Episode 83: Reddit's Darkest Confessions
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What warning signs show a 13-year-old might be violently acting out at home?
I don't know if my son is a sociopath, a psychopath, or something else entirely. All I know is that something is very much wrong with him, and I'm running out of ideas. I'm a single mother with two children, a son and a daughter. Their father left years ago for another woman, so I've been raising them mostly on my own ever since. My son David is now 13 years old, and for as long as I can remember, he's been different. He hardly talks to anyone. myself and his sister included, not really to any other kids. Most of the time, if he wants something, he points at it or uses hand gestures. When he does speak, it's usually only a few words at a time. For a while, I actually wondered if my child had a hearing problem because of how little he communicated.
The strange thing is that he has no problem talking to his imaginary friend. This friend's name is Fry. David has been talking about Fry since he was six years old. At first, I thought it was cute. I mean, lots of kids have imaginary friends, so I assumed that he'd eventually just grow out of it. But up until this point, he hasn't. In fact, as he's gotten older, Fry seems to have become more important to him. Whenever David gets frustrated, he starts hitting himself in the head and screaming. I mean, he'll repeatedly shout while slamming his fist right against his temples. It's terrifying to watch. If he gets upset enough, he'll start breaking things around him. One of the first moments that truly scared me happened when his sister happened to tease him about Fry not being real.
I walked out into the hallway and found David two-handed choking her, like actually squeezing the life out of her. I managed to pull him off, but she was shaking and crying afterward. When I demanded to know what he was thinking, he immediately started hitting himself again instead of answering any questions. My daughter became so frightened of him that she asked to stay with her father for a while and I agreed. I had no idea where this was heading and it didn't feel safe to have her there with me. But unfortunately, things only got worse after she left. David started banging his head against walls. He chewed his fingernails down to the nub. Then one day, he killed his sister's pet fish by putting it into the microwave.
I wish I were making that up, but I'm not. School wasn't any better for David. Over the years, he's been suspended multiple times and even nearly expelled. One incident involved him putting hand sanitizer into another student's milk carton, and thankfully a classmate saw him do it and reported it to a teacher before the child drank it. Beyond that, though, he's hit other students without warning, pulled their hair, stolen things, thrown food in the cafeteria, vandalized school property, pulled fire alarms, and caused more trouble than I can honestly keep track of. Every phone call that I got from the school filled me with dread. I ended up paying thousands of dollars for damaged property, and the stress got so bad that there were days I felt completely overwhelmed.
How did the mother's attempts at therapy and school interventions fail to change her son's behavior?
But I never gave up on my son. No matter what he does, I still love him. I tried therapy, behavioral interventions, programs, doctors, medication, and nothing seemed to make any meaningful difference. The doctors prescribed medication to help him calm down, but if I'm being honest, I don't even know if he's taking it. Like, I sit there and watch him swallow it, but I still don't trust him. That's how bad things have become. At one point, I pulled him out of school entirely, hoping maybe a different environment would help. But it didn't. The only thing that seemed to improve his mood was when his sister eventually came back home. For maybe two days, I thought we had finally turned a corner. But then things got even stranger.
One night I woke up and I needed to use the restroom. I switched on my bedside lamp and I nearly screamed. David was standing in the hallway staring directly at me from the darkness. He didn't move when I did. He didn't say a word. He just stood there. I had no idea how long you'd been there for.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What warning signs show a 13-year-old might be violently acting out at home?
0:17–3:29
2
How did the mother's attempts at therapy and school interventions fail to change her son's behavior?
3:29–6:05
3
When did the boy's behavior escalate to dangerous acts like choking and poisoning?
6:05–12:35
4
What unsettling nightly and drawing-related clues revealed the boy's obsession with 'Fry' and sheep?
12:35–15:54
5
How did a husband’s addiction and family dynamics lead to his eventual suicide?
15:54–21:17
6
What evidence did the widow find in journals that explained her husband's downward spiral?
21:17–24:52