Antisocial disorder: treating it with hypnosis

Lonely, einzelgänger, individualist, live under your rock, eccentric, hermit all words that can apply to antisocial disorder, but is it really so nice to be alone when suffering from this disorder? Or are you actually lonely and unhappy anyway? In this blog, I explore what antisocial disorder is, what problems it can cause and what you can do to treat antisocial disorder and what role hypnosis can play in it.

Antisocial disorder characteristics

With antisocial disorder, you have a pattern of avoiding social contact throughout your life, in addition to being impulsive, quicker than average irritability and merciless toward those around you. Because of this faster irritability and mercilessness, you may also be more violent than the average person[1].

Avoiding social contact can often lead to unemployment, since coworkers are, after all, also social contacts. You may also find yourself wanting to make money in other ways, but these are often criminal, such as drug trafficking. In addition, you may also turn to drug use.

If one of your parents has antisocial personality disorder, you are more likely to develop this disorder yourself due to the way you are raised.

This diagnosis is also often not made until after you turn 18, but it requires proof that you already suffered from antisocial disorder characteristics in childhood.

For example, for diagnosis, these features are important:

1. Aggression toward humans/animals
2. Destruction
3. Deception or theft
4. Rules massively broken
5. Unable to adhere to social norms
6. Unable to abide by laws
7. Violent
8. Recklessness with your own or others' safety
9. Not being able to plan ahead
10. Irresponsibility
11. Don't feel guilty about things you've done wrong.

The behavior should also hinder you from having social contacts, your education and finding and keeping employment.

It also distinguishes between two types. Namely, a disorder that started before the age of ten and a disorder that started after the age of ten

Almost everyone who has this disorder suffers from it before the age of 12.

The younger you are when you suffer from this disorder, the more symptoms of it you have experienced.

In the US and UK, five to nine percent of people suffer from this disorder. In Norway, however, only 1.9 percent of people suffer from this disorder (source 1). In the Netherlands, up to about 3.3 percent of people suffer from antisocial disorder[2].

Men are particularly affected by this disorder, but women can also suffer from it (source 1).

In addition to increasing the risk of substance abuse later in life, ADHD also frequently co-occurs with this disorder. When these conditions occur together, the disorder often begins early in life.

As a child, you may also suffer from depression in addition to this disorder .

As an adult with antisocial disorder, you are also three times more likely than the average person to develop depression.

Empathy antisocial disorder

Because of the characteristics of not regretting when you have done something bad, some people think there is something wrong with your empathic ability if you suffer from antisocial disorder, but that is not the case. You can empathize with how other people feel, but that does not prevent you from doing what you do[3]. For example, a psychopath does find it difficult to imagine his/her behavior hurting someone.

It is true, however, that a toddler who shows little empathy toward others is more likely to suffer from this disorder later in life than toddlers who show a normal amount of empathy[4], but that does not mean empathy at all.

Antisocial disorder treatment

What's funny is that medics note that treatment is difficult because the person with this disorder does not keep appointments well, which in turn is exactly a characteristic of the disorder.

So something is going wrong somewhere with the docility of treatment.

Typically, cognitive behavioral therapy is used, and this then leads to some improvement in social skills and reduction of violence. However, you may still be verbally aggressive, which is an improvement over physical aggression, and you may also retain a lot of irritability.

Also used is mentallization, which is a technique where you learn to think about your mental state and that of other people. This also helps reduce aggressive behavior[5].

Hypnotherapy for treatment

Because treatment for this disorder is sometimes difficult - because the disorder can make you unconsciously resist it - hypnotherapy can actually be a solution. This is because when you are treated under hypnosis, such as with cognitive behavioral therapy, you are more docile, and that can make treatment easier.

With hypnotherapy, for example, you can find out if you have an unconscious motivation for "doing" antisocial disorder.

With hypnotherapy, for example, you’ll identify the event that caused this disorder to develop. You’ll become aware of how this disorder has taken over your own identity . You can then learn how to reframe all of this and how to become yourself again and participate in social life[6] as it is meant to be for people.

With regression , for example, you go back to the first moment when you thought that following rules wouldn’t help you and that aggression was the solution to certain problems. These are often moments from your childhood, because that’s the period in your life when you figure out how the world works and how you can best function within it.

Then you take another look at that moment with your mature knowledge. For example, you empathize with the people who were also there at the time. That in itself can often cause a change in your subconscious about why you do as you do.

Since antisocial personality disorder often means that one of your parents also struggled with it—and that this has become a way for you to survive—you can engage in a conversation with your inner child. For example, you can tell your inner child that you now have a home of your own, that you’re safe, and whatever else your inner child needs to move past that situation—the one that has left you mentally stuck in anger and aggression.

This can be a very good way to reframe your current situation and get back to being social.

Then there are techniques where you can focus precisely on the future. For example, with a progression you can envision a certain life goal, such as being in a loving relationship and hosting parties for friends who have your best interests at heart, and then step back from that ideal picture each time until you are in the chair with the hypnotherapist. This helps you focus on your behavior in the future.

You can also get suggestions you can repeat at home that will help you be less irritable on a daily basis, such as:

"I am calm and at peace."

"If something bothers me, I tell this before it really pisses me off."

"I get to feel the way I feel."

"I'm good enough."

These are just examples. Depending on the problems you experience due to antisocial disorder, you may receive other suggestions to help you deal with it in your daily life.

In addition, you can also get a post-hypnotic suggestion. This is about your behavior after the hypnotherapy session. Usually this is about how you are changing and how you are unconsciously starting to notice that your life is and is getting better.

Would you like to learn more about hypnosis and how you can use it to help others or yourself? Then join a free online masterclass, where you’ll learn the basics of hypnosis.

Want to get started right away with techniques to hypnotize people and make them feel good? Then come to a seminar or sign up for one of the courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.

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