He is not bipolar (although, that has been considered) He is severely depressed and suffers from social anxiety. He does go through a lot of up and down moods. Last night I printed off the classic symptoms of a sociopath for him and went through them one by one. For each symptom, I asked, does this sound like you? And if he said yes I had him give me an example of how it would apply to him. I think that got through to him. He goes back and forth between extreme pain for the entire world's suffering and complete numbness. The numbness is what scares him and led him down this train of thought. He told me last night his primary concerns are lack of empathy (when he feels numb) and being a parasite. We talked about the difference between feeling nothing and wanting to hurt someone - I think he understands that. We talked about being a parasite (he is 16) and how it is a parents job to provide for their children. I told him he is not a parasite or a burden.

I think we made some progress, or at least I hope so. He is still really sad, trying to get him in for an extra T session this week. He is breaking my heart.

Thank you for your kind words and support!