An antisocial personality disorder is where an individual seems to have no concerns about other people’s feelings or the norms of society. These are people who will frequently find themselves on the wrong side of the law and making bad choices. It is often the case that these people can become addicted to alcohol and drugs and so have what is referred to as a dual diagnosis.A dual diagnosis is said to exist if a person has a mental health problem alongside an addiction.
Treating the addiction of a person with antisocial personality disorder can be difficult. They may be completely unable to see the damage that they are doing to themselves and those around them. This type of mental health issue will often lead to a person having many problems in their lives and they may fail to see how much difficulty their dual diagnosis is causing. It is normal that these individuals don’t hold down a job for too long and frequent aggressive outburst leads to all sorts of difficulties. In fact they might be completely unaware of the fact that they have either condition.
The problem with an antisocial personality disorderis that it is often difficult to diagnose when combined with an addition. Many of the symptoms associated with this mental health problem are present in a lot of addicts to some degree so it is understandable how they get dismissed when it is decided that addiction is the cause of all the problems.It is only when the person is free of addiction that their antisocial personality disorder can really be distinguished from their addiction, but for most people there will be little chance of them ever finding the road to recovery while both problems are not tackled.
It is often not appropriate for a person with an antisocial personality disorder to attend many of the treatment addiction options available. In many instances they will most likely need to belong to a dual diagnosis rehabilitation service where both issues can be dealt with. Many of the more traditional approaches rely on the person being able to have a lot of insight and empathy and these are not things that will be available to the person with an untreated personality disorder. In fact attempting to break down the defences and barriers of this type of individual by people untrained with dealing with this type of problem could turn out very badly with violence or other upset caused.
The prognosis for people with a dual diagnosis is better than what it ever has been previously; in fact up until a few years ago these type of people were often referred to as ‘hopeless cases’. This is changing now and with the correct treatment these individuals can do fairly well in recovery. There is still a lot of work needed for developing treatment options for this personality disorder, but life will be a lot easier for them and everyone else while they are in recovery and away from drugs and alcohol.
