How to Treat Antisocial Personality Disorder

An antisocial personality disorder is marked by behavior that seeks to challenge or violate the norms of society, especially by showing disrespect for the rights and privacy of others. In fact, individuals with this affliction are often perceived as criminals, and may not receive proper treatment as a result. Through a specialized program of individualized psychotherapy and group therapy, you can effectively treat an antisocial personality disorder. Read on for more details.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Prescription medication
• Psychiatrist or psychologist

1. Determine if the more common symptoms of an antisocial personality disorder are present. These may include a lack of remorse for hurting the feelings or violating the rights of others, excessive patterns of irritability, recklessness, lying, deceitfulness and willingness to challenge and violate the norms of society on a regular basis.
2. Obtain a proper diagnosis of an antisocial personality disorder from a qualified mental health professional, such as a psychiatrist or psychologist. Note that a diagnosis of an antisocial personality disorder may be more difficult than with other types of personality disorders, since the patient is seldom cooperative during the process and is also usually dishonest.
3. Treat an antisocial personality disorder through the use of individualized psychotherapy in order to determine the causes of the disorder. Often a person who is diagnosed with an antisocial personality disorder is forced to do so under the aegis of a court or doctor, and will probably be very uncooperative at first. Motivating the individual by emphasizing the positive results they can obtain by being cooperative is usually the best strategy for the therapy.
4. Consider using prescription medication to treat an antisocial personality disorder. While there is no evidence to support that drug therapy can cure the disorder, it may be helpful to reduce or eliminate the mood swings that usually accompany more serious cases.
5. Use group therapy to treat an antisocial personality disorder. Take care to only include others that have the same types of personality disorder to reduce the chance of aggressive or even violent confrontations. Conversely, it is important to restrict the discussions so that criminal behaviors are not reinforced by the exchange of inappropriate information between members of the group.

Tips & Warnings

• While only adults can be diagnosed as having an antisocial personality disorder, the patterns of behavior can usually be traced back to adolescence.
• Antisocial personality disorder can lead to violent behavior.