Therapist Unlimited Blog

Based on internet research this type of personality disorder is characterized by a long-standing pattern of a disregard for other people’s rights, often crossing the line and violating those rights.
This pattern of behaviour has occurred since age 15 (although only adults 18 years or older can be diagnosed with this disorder). To better understand this type of character flaw here are some of its common symptoms:
Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviours as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest,  deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure,  impulsivity or failure to plan ahead,  irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults,  reckless disregard for safety of self or others, consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behaviour or honor financial obligations and  lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another.
If you notice any of these signs, it would be best that you immediately consult a medical practitioner to deal with this condition.

Anti-Social Personality Disorder is a problem shared by many people in this planet.
 

Treatment

A. Psychotherapy

As with most personality disorders, individuals with this disorder rarely seek treatment on their own, without being mandated to therapy by a court or significant other.
Court referrals for assessment and treatment for this disorder are likely the most common referral source.
A careful and thorough assessment will ensure that the person has antisocial personality disorder.
This can often be confused with simple criminal activity (all criminals do not have this disorder), adult antisocial behaviour, and other activities that do not justify the personality disorder diagnosis.
As with a thorough assessment of any suspected personality disorder, formal psychological testing should be considered invaluable.
Because many people who suffer from this disorder will be mandated to therapy, sometimes in a forensic or jail setting, motivation on the patient’s part may be difficult to find.
In a confined setting, it may be nearly impossible and therapy should then focus on alternative life issues, such as goals for when they are released from custody, improvement in social or family relationships, learning new coping skills, etc.
 In an outpatient setting, the focus of therapy can also be on these types of issues, but a part of the therapy should be devoted to discussing the antisocial behaviour and feelings (or lack thereof).
Common in the population who suffer from antisocial personality disorder is the lack of connections between feelings and behaviours.
 Helping the client draw, those lines between the two may be beneficial.
Threats are never an appropriate motivating factor in any sort of treatment, and least of all with this disorder. If the only way to motivate the patient is to threaten to report their noncompliance with therapy to the courts or warden, it is highly unlikely the clinician will make any type of gains within therapy anyway.
 It is appropriate, however, to try to help the individual with this disorder find good reasons that they may want to work on this problem further. For instance, ensuring that they not meet the court system again, be incarcerated, have to submit themselves to additional psychological examinations, etc.
Effective psychotherapy treatment for this disorder is limited. It is likely, though, that intensive, psychoanalytic approaches are inappropriate for this population. Approaches that reinforce appropriate behaviours and attempting to make connections between the person’s actions and their feelings are more beneficial. Helping the patient to gain greater accessibility to his/her emotions and to identify them are usually key aspects of treatment of this disorder. In addition, since these patients often have had little or no significant emotionally rewarding relationships in their lives, the therapeutic relationship can be one of the first ones. This can be very scary for the client, initially, and it may become intolerable. A close therapeutic relationship can only occur when a good and solid rapport has been established with the client and he or she can trust the therapist implicitly.

B. Hospitalization

Rarely is inpatient care appropriate or necessary for this personality disorder. Like most personality disorders, most people will go through their lives with little realization of the difficulty they have.
In this case, though, the person is more likely to be seen as a criminal and have a history of difficulties with the law. Loss of freedom may be more of a motivating factor than in other personality disorders, so some specialized treatment facilities have started to treat people with this disorder.
One such program we have read about is the Patuxent Institute, located in Jessup, Maryland in the U.S. This hospital utilizes a strict behavioural approach of placing patients on a token economy based upon their treatment progress.
This is a relatively new and radical approach to this sort of disorder and little research has been conducted to confirm its long-term effectiveness.
As with any treatment, the focus on feelings and connecting antisocial behaviour to appropriate feeling states is appropriate.
Since inpatient, programs tend to be more intensive and expensive they are rarely sought out by the patient themselves. Community follow-up and support, either by the hospital or professionals, or with the use of self-help support groups, is imperative to maintaining treatment gains.

C. Medications

Medical doctors will typically use psychiatric medications to treat mood and disordered behaviour symptoms (e.g., depression, poor sleep), and disorganized thought processes (looseness of thought) that are associated with the Personality Disorders.

D. Self-Help

The medical profession often overlooks self-help methods for the treatment of this disorder because very few professionals are involved in them.
 Groups can be especially helpful for people with this disorder, if they are tailored specifically for antisocial personality disorder. Individuals with this disorder typically feel more at ease in discussing their feelings and behaviours in front of their peers in this type of supportive modality.
 Leaders of such self-help support groups, though, must be wary of individuals who come to group just to brag about their exploits and who may seek to use the group inappropriately.
 Usually a group can be very helpful and beneficial to most people with this disorder, once they overcome their initial fears and hesitation to join such a group.
 Many support groups exist within communities throughout the world, which are devoted to helping individuals with this disorder share their common experiences and feelings.
Trust brings up the issue of confidentiality since often the patient with antisocial personality disorder is mandated to therapy.
 This means that the clinician may have to occasionally report on the patient’s progress in therapy. While this can usually be done in a very general way, which reveals no significant details of the content of therapy, it is still an important issue for the client.
 He or she may be suspicious and distrustful of the clinician at first, since it will be unclear as to who has the highest priority — the patient or the court. This fear can only be alleviated with an honest disclosure as to what the therapist will reveal to the courts, and with time, as the client learns that what he says in the therapy session does not become common knowledge. The limitations of therapy should be discussed with the patient up-front, in a clear and matter-of-fact manner, so there are no misunderstandings later.
The content of therapy should focus on the patient’s emotions (or lack thereof). As the individual learns to experience various emotional states, one of the first may be depression. The client will likely be unfamiliar with the feelings associated with depression, and so it is beneficial for the clinician to be supportive and empathetic to the individual during this time. Reinforcing any emotions, outside of anger or frustration, is usually beneficial. Experiencing intense affect is usually a sign of progress in therapy.
Staying on "safe issues," and discussing more real-life concerns, while one way of treating this disorder, is not likely to be as effective in long term behavioural change as an approach emphasizing the discovery and labelling of appropriate emotional states.
People who have antisocial personality disorder often have trouble with authority figures.
The therapist should usually take a neutral stance in this matter, since it is a firmly held belief by the client. The clinician should avoid arguments and taking sides on authority issues and those who hold authority over the client. Their moral and ethical makeup may leave a lot to be desired as well. While this may be an appropriate topic for discussion in therapy, it will also likely be one of little progress.

Source: http://www.mentalhelp.net