Heroin and oxycontin belong to a class of drugs called opiates. Lovefraud recently received a letter from a reader that raised the issue of heroin addiction in sociopaths:
For nearly two years after my relationship with him ended, I was on the web researching heroin addiction because I assumed this was where all of his abusive behavior came from, but I stumbled upon information on sociopaths, and realized that he fits every trait”¦I know substance abuse behavior can mimic sociopathic behavior, but it is clear that the man I was in a relationship with is a sociopath, and was able to use his addiction as an explanation and excuse to further manipulate the many people who offered help to him”¦ The man I dated definitely went beyond the regular lying and stealing that takes place and went far into the realm of sadism- taking great joy in manipulation and emotional devastation of others. He was breaking into cars and taking great risks to his physical safety as a child/young man, well before his drug use started. It makes sense to me that people who are sociopaths and do not have a conscience would be more likely to become heroin addicts, as seeing others being hurt by their behavior would not be a deterrent. Whereas someone with a conscience would feel just as good when they take the heroin, they would be more likely to think about its effects on others, and stop the behavior.
I trained in three public urban hospitals where the prevalence of opiate addiction was so high that I treated countless numbers of these patients and encountered them on a daily basis. That nearly all were sociopaths was an inescapable reality. It did not seem possible that all these people were sociopaths prior to becoming addicted, so I have long believed that heroin especially makes people into sociopaths.
My beliefs have been confirmed by a number of scientific studies. One particularly thorough study was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology in 1998 (Vol. 107.p 412-422) entitled, A Typology of Antisociality in Methadone Patients by Dr. Arthur I. Alterman and colleagues of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
These researchers studied 252 men in methadone maintenance programs. Their average age was 40. The researchers looked extensively into the backgrounds and histories of the subjects and had them complete a number of personality tests. They also interviewed them using Robert Hare’s PCL-R.
The study identified 6 groups of subjects, each with a unique psychological profile. 72 percent of the sample were sociopaths. That means that only 28 percent were not significantly antisocial. The researchers believed that in perhaps 17 percent of the sample the sociopathy was due to the addiction. The take home message though was that 55 percent were highly psychopathic as measured by the PCL-R. About a quarter of the total sample were married and we can assume the rest had relationships of some sort.
Government statistics indicate there may be as many as 2 million opiate addicts in the US. There are only 650 methadone maintenance programs in the US with an estimated 120,000 clients. These clients are likely similar to those of the reported study, but it is reasonable to believe that non-sociopaths are over represented in treatment programs, so the 28 percent figure may be an over-estimate with regard to the total addict population.
One of the most interesting findings of the above study was that Machiavellianism was high in the 55 percent of methadone clients who were sociopaths. Machiavellianism was measured by the 20-item MACH-IV which measures egocentricity, a lack of concern with conventional morality, and interpersonal manipulativeness. These symptoms would predict a great deal of distress in the spouses and romantic partners of the subjects- not to mention the children born to these parents.
The results of the study raise other important points I have made on this blog. First, among the very antisocial and manipulative opiate addicts there were a range of PCL-R scores. This means that you should not be concerned with trying to decide if the person who is hurting and manipulating you meets some magical cut-off score. Instead look at the list of traits Donna has posted and see if the description more or less fits.
Also, childhood and teen problems cannot always be identified in people who are very psychopathic. Things happen in late adolescence and early adulthood that change people. Furthermore, just because we can’t prove a given person had antisocial tendencies early in life, doesn’t mean they weren’t there. The other implication of this is that at-risk young people require careful, loving, hands-on parenting even if they seem OK. Addiction may be an event that tips at-risk individuals into the realm of psychopathy.
The brain opiate systems are central to love and attachment in humans. This fact may account for the propensity for sociopaths to use heroin. It may also be that opiate drugs specifically poison a person’s ability to love, making him/her egocentric, grandiose and manipulative.
Dr. Leedom,
Have any similar studies been done on people who are addicted to cocaine and/or crack?
Not a suprising result at all in my estimation. I think it confirms observation of the toxcisity of many people with addictions to various mind-altering chemicals including alcohol. AA has enough people who are obviously psychopathic that the term “dry drunk” has come into being to describe them. They are “off” the booze, but still behave in an antisocial and manipulative manner.
My mother’s brother was a very violent man both with and without alcohol, and from a very early age. The alcohol of course disinhibited his tendency for violence. The fact that he would go periodically for 3-4 days without sleep and while drinking makes me also (in retrospect) think he might have also been bi-polar. When he was sober, he could/would control his behavior in public at least (in front of anyone except his victims) but in “private” with his victims, he was relentless with the violence.
EVen when drunk though, he was a bully, and would only be violent to someone he thought he could cow. He was only verbally violent to me once, and then when he thought I would not respond—I did respond and left the scene of his outburst. He was careful to pick people he thought or knew would not fight back.
I’m with Jen, I would like to see studies on other substances of abuse as well as opiates. Good post!
Lianne:
I also would be interested in studies on the abuse of cocaine and/or crystal meth. My S served 10 months after he stole paychecks to feed his coke habit. By the end of our relationship I knew he was back on coke and pretty sure he was on meth.
Based on things he said relating back to his childhood, I am certain his sociopathy is genetic. However, the need of a sociopath for a fresh buzz, hence the return to drugs, makes me wonder if the sociopathy was a result of his drug addiction.
The book Monkeyluv by Robert M. Sapolsky cited research s that the frontal cortex or the pre frontal cortex of the brain is smaller in sociopaths and heroin addicts. I read that heroin deals with the pleasure centers in the brain, located in these areas, and heroin also changes the oxytocin and vasopressin? in the brain, which interferes with the experience of love and attachment to others. I think there are a lot of sociopaths who definitely find it beneficial to embrace their label of “addict”, because they can continue to hurt others, and then claim that they are really good people depite their actions, as a way to further manipulate and gain pity, playing on the sympathy of well meaning people who have not yet experienced their wrath enough to know to steer clear of them altogether.
Hello Hopeful – I fell for this with my ex-S. His background was sketchy, but he explained it as the result of his addictions – that he had behaved poorly at times because he was an addict and alcoholic. He had been sober for 3 years when I met him. I should have paid more attention to the fact that his life didn’t look all that much better in sobriety. But, I gave too much credence to the “addict behavior” as the reason behind his antisocial acts. Turns out he was a drunk and high sociopath. And in some ways he got WORSE after getting sober. He had more conscious hours in the day to devote to lying, cheating, manipulated. The drugs and booze had slowed him down.
Dear Hopeful,
Glad you are here, welcome!
Thanks for the reference for the book. Sounds i nteresting. I am interested in the differences in their brains versus “normal” brains.
I think you are right, too that they use their “disease” of “addiction” to blame for their behavior….”Oh, pity me, I’m sick and can’t control myself.” Yea, right!
About 10 months into my year long relationship with a femaile sociopath, she admitted to being a heroin addict in her early 20’s.. she was 42 at that time.. I was shocked at first, but felt that we all have a past and have made mistakes so I was just glad it was something from her past… later when the beauty turned into ashes and I was left trying to figure it all out, I recounted a year’s worth of her tales from her past and there had been other addictions.. cocane, xanac, and various other perscription and recreational drugs. In the whole time I was with her, I never saw or knew if she was taking drugs, but as I was piecing the whole bizzare relationship together along with her inconsistant behavior, I had wondered if she was taking drugs, because of the crazy behavior.. that was before I stumbled across thsi site… I guess the bottom line is I’ll never know if she was a sociopath, bi-polar, borderline, or a drug user, or maybe she was just crazy…… Next month will be three years since her departure from my life, and I have manged to go on and be thankful for the lessons learned and that it wasn’t worse then it could have been… but to be perfectly honest, the whole thing, the whole relationship, the twistedness of it all, has haunted me.. I guess it’s about not really knowing the real truth about what it was, but then again, at this point it really doesn’t matter… but still the same… I’ll always wonder how someone could be so dead on the inside once the mask slid down and possess a heart made of stone.
southernman429:
I was so busy trying to figure out what the hell I was dealing with by the end of my relationship with S. I spoke with drug counselors who told me that based on what I was telling them he was using agan. I spoke with therapists who had their own spin. I read the literature and knew I was dealing with an S.
In the end all I knew was that whatever the hell he was be it a drug-addicted S or anything else — I neeed him out of my life.
But, it’s that moment the mask slipped and I realized that he had no heart and for all the love and money and everthing else I gave him I was viewed as nothing more a source of supply just like his drug dealer.
Dear SouthernMan,
Glad to see you back here! Have missed you! glad things are doing well and still on the healing, the drug/P connection is interesting itsn’t it. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Welcme back!
I think these guys (and gals – yours sounds like quite a piece of work, Southernman), are born predisposed to being an S – maybe become one, maybe do not (depending in part, on environment – some will become S’s no matter what, others will not unless they are abused/neglected, somehow deprived of nurturing). And then because they are so empty, bored, irritable, they find substances that help them feel okay, and even good, temporarily. That frustration and emptiness is medicated – temporarily.
And, as they do for every human, use of substances to modulate emotional experience becomes substance abuse and then substance dependence. And addiction will rob a good person of their soul – “spiritual bankruptcy” they call it in AA. You lose your morals, your self-respect, your respect for others. I think “normal” people can regain, and even develop and improve, their spiritual self in sobriety (not all, though), while S’s have always been that spiritually bankrupt, and always will be that way. The substances just changed, somewhat, the expression of their pathology.
For my ex S some drugs mellowed him out and made him less likely to get in fights – while alcohol made him more aggressive. However, in sobriety he seems to be more strategic in who he hits – he hits women. He was less self-serving in his targets when drunk, and sometimes got himself beaten up by bigger guys. But when clear-headed, he knew to only assault women. And his sexual addiction (if you call it that – maybe just depraved sexual behavior of a sociopath) went on overdrive once he stopped using drugs and alcohol.
I think these guys (and gals) are bad. Both before and after the substance abuse. It may impact the way they live their lives and the expression of their pathology – but they were bad before, bad during, and bad afterward. They can use substance abuse as an excuse.
*I know many people who are “recovering” addicts and/or alcoholics who are absolutely wonderful people, and some of the most consistently spiritually sound people I have met. And NOT like the S – can walk the walk in addition to talk the talk.