What Is A Personality Disorder?
In general personality disorders are mental health conditions. These conditions affect how someone thinks, perceives, feels or relates to others. An antisocial personality disorder is one such type of personality disorder.
Personality disorders usually range from mild to severe. The signs of a personality disorder often emerge during adolescence and persist into adulthood. They can run in families and may be associated with genetic and family factors. Such as abuse, neglect or other experiences of distress during childhood.
People with personality disorders often have other mental health issues. These may include depression and alcohol or drug misuse. Treatment for personality disorders usually involves a course of psychological therapy that is tailored to suit the individual needs.
What Is Antisocial Personality Disorder?
Antisocial personality disorder, like any personality disorder, is on a spectrum. It is a particularly challenging disorder. People with this type of personality disorder can be impulsive, irresponsible and often engage in criminal behaviour.
These people can appear reckless, deceitful, manipulative and don’t appear to care about other people’s feelings. As it’s on a spectrum their behaviour can range from occasional bad behaviour to repeatedly committing serious crimes.
Antisocial personality disorder affects more men than women. The person is also three times more likely to engage in drug and alcohol misuse. They have an increased risk of dying prematurely as a result of reckless behaviour or attempting suicide.
As with other personality disorder it’s not known why some people develop it and others don’t. But both genetics and traumatic childhood experiences are thought to play a role.
Childhood Issues.
The child will often come to the attention of social services as a result of their parent’s behaviour. Or issues the parents might have around substance abuse. The child may have come to the attention of the police because of repeat offending either. Unsurprisingly these types of difficulties in childhood will often lead to behavioral problems as they get older.
It is not unusual for people with an antisocial personality disorder to also have relationship problems and/or be unemployed and/or be homeless. Their behaviour usually becomes most extreme and challenging during the late teens and early 20s. But may improve by the time the person reaches their 40s. Especially if they receive the right treatment.
In the past, antisocial personality disorder was thought to be a lifelong disorder. But that’s not always the case and it can sometimes be managed and treated. In saying that psychopaths/sociopaths are considered to have a severe form of antisocial personality disorder.
Signs Of Antisocial Personality Disorder.
A person with an antisocial personality disorder may:
- Exploit, manipulate or violate the rights of others
- Lack concern, regret or remorse about other people’s distress
- Behave irresponsibly and show disregard for normal social behaviour
- Have difficulty sustaining long-term relationships
- Be unable to control their anger
- Lack guilt, or not learn from their mistakes
- Blame others for problems in their lives
- Repeatedly break the law
Treatment & Diagnosis 
Antisocial personality disorder is diagnosed after rigorous psychological assessment.
The person will usually have a history of conduct disorder before the age of 15 . An assessment will be carried out by a specialist mental health professional.
Diagnosis.
During this assessment the person will be asked questions about their thoughts, feelings and behaviour, and how they cope with any problems. They will also be asked about different areas of their life. These will include their relationships, life at home, at work or college, and any other problems such as depression and anxiety, and problems with drugs and alcohol.
The person may be asked to fill in a questionnaire. They may be asked to discuss any behaviour that may be harmful to themselves or others. Such as any violent behaviour, any previous convictions or time spent in prison.
The assessment may also ask about any other conditions the person may have. Or events in their life that makes them feel stressed.
The person accessing them will also discuss the treatment plan. Whether they need psychological treatment, social care and support. Or help in finding a job or getting back to education.
As I’ve said previously, treatment need to meet the individual’s needs. As such it may require a multi-disciplinary team and support system in place to help the individual.
When Is A Diagnosis Made?
A diagnosis can only be made if the person is aged 18 years or older. At least 3 of the following criteria apply and the individual’s history is taken:
- Repeatedly breaking the law
- Shows signs of being repeatedly deceitful
- The person is impulsive or incapable of planning ahead
- They show signs of being irritable and aggressive
- The person has a reckless disregard for their safety or the safety of others
- They are consistently irresponsible
- The person also shows a lack of remorse
These signs must not be part of a schizophrenic or manic episode. They must be part of the person’s everyday personality.
Treatment.
Recommended treatment will have to take into account the individuals needs. Plus personal history, age, offenders history, and any other conditions they may be experiencing.
It is usual to include family and friends in the treatment plan where possible. With them playing an active role in helping the person to make decisions about their own treatment and care needs.
Talking therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or Mentalisation Based Therapy plus Democratic Therapeutic Communities (DTC) can be used. Therapy always requires cooperation from the individual to participate and self-motivation is an important factor.
Another factor that helps is getting the individual help with or opportunities for educational and vocational work. This is where community-based programs can help a lot.
Although the recommended length of treatment is 18 months it can vary. The time is required so the person can make the necessary changes and put new skills into practice.
There’s little evidence to support the use of medication for treating antisocial personality disorder. Although certain antipsychotic and antidepressant medications may be helpful in some instances. They will be more likely to be used to treat other conditions the person may have developed, such as depression, anxiety, and drug and alcohol problems.
Why I Write These Types Of Blogs.
In writing these type of blogs I hope people find them informative and useful. In most cases we only hear different terms bandy about in the media. Or by others with no knowledge of these conditions and with little or no understanding of them. How can we make up our own minds?
If we are to make any headway in taking the fear and stigma out of mental health issues and why they occur. We need to be informed so we can make up our own minds about such things and not just follow along blindly with someone else’s mistaken opinions.
One way is by reading this type of blog which contains the basic knowledge of the topic. The other is to always keep an open mind when you hear about a mental health condition and go get the information you need before deciding on your opinion.
Work With Me
Remember you are allowed to ask for support. No one is an island. In fact I would strongly advise you to reach out for counseling if you, or a loved one, have recently received a diagnosis.
If you need extra support then you can also work with me. We all struggle with stress and overwhelm from time to time. If you find this has become a problem for you and you’d like some support then schedule an appointment with me.
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