Antisocial personality disorder
Someone who is anti-social is someone who takes little notice of the laws and regulations in society. This does not mean that everyone is immediately a criminal, but it does mean that someone who is anti-social is more likely to go down the criminal path. This is due to their reckless behaviour and limited developed conscience.
What are the antisocial personality disorder symptoms?
The antisocial personality disorder characteristics are especially unpleasant for those around them. An antisocial person is in any case not a pleasant person to work and live with. An antisocial person is very irritable and can figuratively explode at the drop of a hat. Aggressiveness is very common among antisocial people. Because they are impulsive, their behaviour is unpredictable. Antisocial people are only interested in a quick satisfaction of their needs, without taking others into account. If what they want does not happen, they may become aggressive. This is also the reason why antisocial people use violence more often than average. An addiction to alcohol and drugs is also common among antisocial individuals.
A very limited conscience
What can be seen as a very serious symptom is the limited conscience of antisocial persons. The conscience of almost all people causes them to feel guilty or ashamed if they do something criminal. Shame and guilt are often absent in antisocial individuals. This gives them a licence to act recklessly and irresponsibly. Not only their own well-being is at risk, but also the well-being of those around them. In many cases this involves violence, for which they do not feel guilty. This is precisely why it is important that antisocial individuals receive treatment.
What is the cause of antisocial behaviour?
Antisocial behaviour usually starts at an early age in childhood. Many people with this personality disorder do not complete their education, and they do not keep their jobs for long either. If they do not hop from job to job, they make use of social benefits. After all, they do not feel the social need to work. Unemployment also encourages illegal (criminal) activities and it is difficult to get out of this anti-social behaviour. In addition to a poor upbringing, traumatic events in the past can also form the basis for this personality disorder, such as mistreatment, sexual abuse or exploitation.
Treatment of antisocial personality disorder
A problem with a personality disorder like this is that the person in question does not always suffer from it. The environment has much more difficulty with it. That is why it is difficult to convince an antisocial person to enter into treatment. Often, this only happens when the situation has already gotten somewhat out of hand with violence, alcohol and/or drug addiction and prison sentences. Then finally a diagnosis is made that you suffer from a personality disorder and it is easier to start treatment.
EMDR treatment
If the diagnosis shows that the personality disorder was acquired through a past trauma, EMDR therapy can be an effective treatment. EMDR focuses not so much on the antisocial behaviour, but purely on the unprocessed trauma. An unprocessed trauma is called a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). You do not want to be reminded of the trauma and the memory is painful. With EMDR, the idea is to let the event be part of the past, but without the necessary emotions. You can look at it rationally. During the session you have to bring the trauma to the foreground, but if you are in the reliving phase, you are distracted by a hand gesture or a sound signal. When repeated, this leads to processing of the trauma and reduction or disappearance of related symptoms.
Treat with Psylaris in a modern way
Psylaris is working on making the GGZ more accessible with handy applications. One of those applications is virtual reality. With a VR-glasses on, the client lands in a virtual world, where lifelike images can be seen and where he/she is, as it were, directly distracted. The VR glasses can be used in the treatment room, but also at home. This way, EMDR at a distance is possible.
Online EMDR is the purpose of EMDR-Remote. On this online platform, the practitioner can have an EDMR session with the client by means of stable video calls. The client doesn’t have to leave the house and the therapist has more digital possibilities for distraction. With EMDR-Remote, Psylaris has developed a safe and easy-to-access online platform.
EMDR therapy with modern methods
As a developer of modern methods and tools in mental health care, Psylaris has also made EMDR easy with modern techniques. Virtual reality therapy, plays an increasingly important role in mental health care. With EMDR-VR & VRET VR Psylaris has developed a VR module. The module can easily be used by the practitioner and has many distraction possibilities. The client gets a more intense distraction than during a regular treatment. The VR glasses can be used both at home and in the treatment room. This makes both the practitioner and the client more flexible.
If the client is unable to come to the treatment centre, Psylaris uses EMDR-remote to make it possible to receive EMDR treatment at home. EMDR-remote is the online EMDR platform of Psylaris, where the practitioner and the client can conduct an EMDR session via video calling. Again, the practitioner has many possibilities to distract and the client, who is chained to the house, is still being treated.