Hi everyone.
I'm a college student, I'm studying psychology and was recommended to a book recently called the "sociopath next door". While reading it, I realized that I did indeed know a sociopath.
When I was about 12 I ran away from home. I slept on couches etc. until I moved in with my meth addict sister and her boyfriend Angel. Angel was the classic sociopath, though I didn't know it at the time. Over the years he tried to rape me, beat me sense countless times and did the same to my sister. He refused to work, instead relying on "boosting", (stealing things then selling for discount), to feed his addiction to alcohol and meth. He was such an attention whore, always the loudest funniest and most charming in the room. He flirted with every girl, even me, (from the time I was maybe13!). People liked him.

But no one saw the games he played. He would purposefully start a fight between my sister and me, or my mom and my sister. He would go between the two of us and tell me my sister had said something about me, or start talking to me and somehow I'd end up talking about something Sarah did that made me mad, and he would covertly antagonize us. It took me years to realize that this was on purpose, he was such a good manipulator he had us thinking it was us the whole time. The thing that creeped me out the most is he had this glint in his eyes whenever we would fight, he would stand there and watch, with a look on his face that most men only get while watching a dirty movie. He would lie constantly, for fun, or make up stories to make you feel sorry for him, like when I told my sister he had tried to rape me, he suddenly decided to say he had been raped when he was a child, and he could never do that to anyone else. He convinced my sister I was trying to break up their relationship because I was in love with him, he was such a good liar he had me doubting my own story, made me wonder if him lying on top of me and holding me down wasn't really attempted rape, maybe I WAS crazy!
And all along we followed his every lead, he was actually like a brother to me at times, when it suited him he could be so nice and funny. He would make me feel like he loved me, and being a kid who didn't have a real family I wanted a big brother to take care of me. But if he felt mean or wanted to fight he would antagonize me endlessly, calling me horrible names for no reason, saying I was fat or nasty and no wonder no one cared about me. He would sexually harass me and then call me a slut, just psychologically torture me for his own entertainment. Writing it all down like this I can't believe my sister and I stayed around him, she thought she loved him and he did the same crap to her, and I stayed because I had no other options. It sounds crazy, but he was just that ... manipulative and charming and cruel. There are many more things I could say, but this is long enough already, sorry. I'm just glad I found a place where maybe someone else will have experienced something similar and understand what it feels like and how much damage it does.
Has anyone found a way to recover from similar abuse from a sociopath? Or even met one like this??