Antisocial Personality Disorder Is Not What You Think It Is by Nihitha Koneru

Many people tend to misunderstand antisocial personality disorder from the word “antisocial” as being introverted and reserved but these individuals are often known to be charming, witty, and fun to be around. Antisocial personality disorder does not excuse unethical behaviour, it does not have a definite cause, and is a treatable disorder. People also falsely associate every individual that has antisocial personality disorder as being a “psychopath” while in reality, the true definition of “psychopath” is an extreme form of antisocial personality disorder. Furthermore, psychopathy is not even a psychiatric diagnosis.

Antisocial personality disorder is a mental illness where a person’s behaviour can be destructive to themselves and to others around them. They don’t care if they break the law and don’t often have feelings of remorse. Even though common symptoms of ASPD include stealing, being arrogant, manipulating others, being angry often, lying frequently, not showing feelings of guilt, and not caring about the safety of themselves or others, they still know the difference between wrong and right. Attorneys have tried to use ASPD as an excuse for bad behaviour, but it has never been used successfully in court. The diagnosis does not give patients a free pass to act however they like, instead, it offers a different perspective to understand their patterns of actions. Unlike other mental disorders, ASPD does not mean losing a sense of reality, they know what is going around them but may just choose to ignore it.

There is no one answer to why antisocial personality disorder occurs in people, however, there are still some factors that indicate why it exists. Personality is a combination of emotions, thoughts and actions that is influenced by the world around us. Therefore, it is safe to say that those who have experienced traumatic childhoods with abuse, are more likely to develop this disorder. Environmental factors during childhood are very crucial to the growth of the brain, children growing up with poor discipline and having negative role models can play a major role for the child’s future. Genes and family history are also known to be a component to ASPD. There is not one gene that is linked to antisocial personality disorder but multiple can have an effect. People with antisocial or alcoholic parents are also at a higher risk. Additionally, people can only be diagnosed for this after the age of 18 but studies have shown children with conduct disorder (the childhood precursor to ASPD) are very likely to be diagnosed with it.

People often don’t realize that ASPD is treatable and preventable early on. When children show symptoms like bullying, constantly misbehaving, stealing etc., it is important to show them consequences for their actions so they can understand feelings like guilt early on in their lives. Studies show that 80% of people with this disorder showed symptoms by the age of 11. Additionally, there are treatments that could be used such as psychotherapy and medications. Most people who suffer from antisocial personality disorder are very unlikely to get help themselves, so it is important for others to be aware and suggest seeing a psychiatrist for individuals that show such symptoms. We as a whole should be more aware of mental illnesses that affect such large populations and should not make assumptions to those who have it.

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