antisocial personality disorder (aka sociopath) is on a continuum. The same way that all people with depression do not exhibit or experience that the same - neither does antisocial personality disorder.
My husband went through a battery of psych/neuro testing a few years ago to determine the etiology of his problems. He had a lot of high markers for both antisocial personality and narcissism. However, he did not hit the bar where he owns that label. However, at an earlier stage in life he probably would have hit the diagnositc criteria without a problem. It does tend to become tempered with age.
Drugs/alcohol can make anyone act like a sociopath but it doesn't mean that they are....it doesn't mean that they aren't either. People like Jeffrey Dahmer and other serial killers are on the more extreme end of this diagnosis.
I think that it is hard for us to understand the behaviors of people that don't seem to care about others - because as people on the "anon" side we just aren't wired that way. I also think that is why we attempt to explain and understand their behaviors. It is just so foreign to the way that we think, feel, and behave.
A large number of people with personality disorders do have a dual diagnosis. But, it's also correct that a lot of people with addiction problems do not have a personality disorder. I am getting a masters in rehab counseling and in the training they stress how careful you have to be about attaching labels to people. Instead of assigning labels without formal testing it helps me to just be aware that someone has tendencies that are consistent with certain personality disorders without necessarily being formally diagnosed with one.
We all have aspects of each of the "personality disorders" in us. It's when the behaviors and characteristics are the prevalent presentation that people begin to hit the diagnostic criteria:
Diagnosis
According to ICD-10, the diagnosis of a personality disorder must satisfy the following general criteria, in addition to the specific criteria listed under the specific personality disorder under consideration:
There is evidence that the individual's characteristic and enduring patterns of inner experience and behaviour as a whole deviate markedly from the culturally expected and accepted range (or "norm"). Such deviation must be manifest in two or more of the following areas:
cognition (i.e., ways of perceiving and interpreting things, people, and events; forming attitudes and images of self and others);
affectivity (range, intensity, and appropriateness of emotional arousal and response);
control over impulses and gratification of needs;
manner of relating to others and of handling interpersonal situations.
The deviation must manifest itself pervasively as behaviour that is inflexible, maladaptive, or otherwise dysfunctional across a broad range of personal and social situations (i.e., not being limited to one specific "triggering" stimulus or situation).
There is personal distress, or adverse impact on the social environment, or both, clearly attributable to the behaviour referred to in criterion 2.
There must be evidence that the deviation is stable and of long duration, having its onset in late childhood or adolescence.
The deviation cannot be explained as a manifestation or consequence of other adult mental disorders, although episodic or chronic conditions from sections F00-F59 or F70-F79 of this classification may coexist with, or be superimposed upon, the deviation.
Organic brain disease, injury, or dysfunction must be excluded as the possible cause of the deviation. (If an organic causation is demonstrable, category F07.- should be used.)
There is an interesting book called "The Sociopath Next Door" that helps to explain some of the more garden variety symptoms/tendencies of this disorder. It's confusing to try and diagnose people.
When I stay in the solution....it always comes down to me and my boundaries. It doesn't matter who or what someone is....it's all about what sort of people I want in my life. Other people and their disorders really aren't any of my business. My business is whether to be around them or not. Sometimes when I tend to pin pathology on someone else it is to justify and explain my actions. If I can find something wrong with them - then maybe there isn't something wrong with me. Which, of course, is incorrect. Always....I have to look at myself and learn about what in me was drawn to that sort of person. That is probably the best thing to figure out.