Title: Antisocial Personality Disorder
Contributed by: mcookie013
Antisocial personality disorder is a mental illness characterized by a person in adulthood lacking in empathy and unable to show remorse. In everyday life and pop culture, the terms 'psychopath' and 'sociopath' are often used to refer to someone with APD, but these are not used in the clinical setting. Clinically, APD is the diagnosis of someone who is chronically manipulative, conning, reckless, and often dangerous. While people with APD fall along a spectrum of symptoms with varying severity, and not all sufferers are serial killers and con artists like the movies depict, they can be difficult to be around and sometimes dangerous.
Antisocial personality disorder is diagnosed when a person’s pattern of antisocial behavior has occurred since age 15 (although only adults 18 years or older can be diagnosed with this disorder) and consists of the majority of these symptoms:
Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors 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 behavior or honor financial obligations
Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another
There should also be evidence of Conduct Disorder in the individual as a child, whether or not it was ever formally diagnosed by a professional.
Note that
1. Someone with antisocial personality disorder must have a history of conduct disorder. Conduct disorder is the young-age counterpart of antisocial personality disorder - essentially, conduct disorder is antisocial personality disorder for children. It is symptomatic by bullying behavior, disregard for life (mistreating animals), anger and authority problems, inability to show/feel remorse, and general poor or criminal conduct. Children with conduct disorder also tend to have a history of pyromania (obsession with fire) and bed wetting.
2. Antisocial personality disorder is rare in women. Although scientists aren't exactly sure why, antisocial personality disorder manifests primarily in men. Over 70% of all cases of the illness are associated with men.
3. Sufferers of the illness typically have a history of abuse.Because the illness is thought to be biological only in part, a serious risk factor for triggering it is extensive abuse over the childhood period. People with antisocial personality disorder are typically abused physically and emotionally by someone close to them in their lives, for many years. They may also have suffered extensive periods of neglect as children. The abuser is often a parent who also has anti-social tendencies, which they pass along to their child.
Diagnosis
Many people with antisocial personality disorder don’t seek out treatment. People with personality disorders, in general, do not often seek out treatment until the disorder starts to significantly interfere or otherwise impact a person’s life. This most often happens when a person’s coping resources are stretched too thin to deal with stress or other life events.
A diagnosis for antisocial personality disorder is made by a mental health professional comparing your symptoms and life history with those listed here. They will make a determination whether your symptoms meet the criteria necessary for a personality disorder diagnosis.
sources:
http://www.wikihow.com/Recognize-Someone-With-Antisocial-Personality-Disorder
http://psychcentral.com/disorders/antisocial-personality-disorder-symptoms/
