Extremely Manipulative And Sociopathic Behavior

[TreasureVibe]

Hi there. My dad abused a substance for years that he generally referred to as "amphetamine" but "legal" according to his words, for years on his work (he worked in a pharmacy as a pharmacist so he had free access to this and he did not do it alone apparently) until it was apparently "outlawed", again, according to his words. He never named the actual substance so it is unknown to us what it could've been. I recognize my dad alot in what people write here in several threads about benzos, like this one: Constant And Extreme Sociopathic Behavior By Users Of Benzos

Today, he is not the same friendly person anymore ever since he used this substance. He is manipulative, has extremely innappropriate sexual lusts, can be unempathic and down right sociopathic. Also, he lies alot and is very untrustworthy, having cheated on my mother before, something which he hid for all of us for years and has never apologized for. He lied to a therapist, in order to fool me and my mother into thinking we are somehow crazy by getting the therapist to state his personal opinions on us, which are, ofcourse, based on his completely exaggerated and down right lied story he told him weeks before when he had a 1 on 1 appointment with him.

He already had undiagnosed borderline personality disorder presumably, but ever since using this unknown substance, he has become extremely worse when he is completely himself.

Could this be because of the substance he abused? Presumably an amphetamine-like substance? Thanks if anyone can help out!

 

[Blossom]

Hey Richard, sorry you've been hurt by all of this needless drama. I can relate. The sad thing is that 50-60% of marriages experience infidelity so even though it's tragic I wanted you to know that you are most definitely not alone. Affairs are addictions. It sounds like your dad might have what people often refer to as an addictive personality. I wouldn't write him off completely as a hopeless case but he has to be the one who wants to change. The only thing you can do is take good care of yourself and set boundaries.

 

[Blossom]

I do think some of the drugs can make things worse as far as impairing judgement and impulse control. Ultimately though a person is still responsible for their own actions. Anyone can make a mistake but it takes courage and strength of character to be willing to admit mistakes and make amends for harming others.

 

[schultz]

I was watching a documentary on psychopaths a while back and they mentioned that a certain part of the brain in psychopaths, I think it was the prefrontal cortex (though the amygdala is also coming to mind, but I also think there is some connection between the two) is under-active. From what I remember the prefrontal cortex is activated by amphetamines like Adderall and similar drugs like Ritalin. I remember thinking it was sort of counter-intuitive (at least to myself at the time) that hyperactive kids could have an under-active brain, and I also thought it was interesting that psychopathy shares similarities with ADD. I don't know the exact details, and you'll have to forgive my memory. I watch documentaries sometimes when I am at work so I am usually only partially listening. Anyway, I think I have it close (I just looked it up quickly trying to confirm)

I bring this up because I am wondering if taking an amphetamine can cause symptoms to appear once the drug is stopped (like the body started relying on the drug and it messed up the system/the body doesn't bounce back). Either that or your father had the traits already and the drug he was taking happened to mask them during the time he was on them. Or the drug has nothing to do with his behavior, who knows?! I just remembered the documentary when I read your post and thought there might be some connection there.

It might have been this documentary as there are several youtube comments upset with the idea that the documentary compares ADD with psychopathy lol. A few people said the documentary is outdated. I don't know one way or another.