How do you imagine someone with an addictive personality? Can you imagine an alcoholic, someone on drugs, a heavy smoker or a gambler with no luck?
Addictive behaviors are commonly viewed as behaviors that impair a person’s ability to function. They often do, but not all addictive behaviors have that effect. Some addictive behaviors do not negatively influence or impact the person’s life.
Many people don’t even realize they have the tendency because their behavior doesn’t fit the image they have in their mind of those who do. Someone with an addictive personality can turn a positive activity, like exercising, into an obsession. As one mental health expert put it, healthy people plan exercise around their lives. Addicts plan their lives around exercise.
Those with addictive personalities have drives that other people do not and that can impede their ability to make good decisions. They have a tendency to do things that are okay in moderation, things that those without addictive personalities do without a problem, and become addicted to them. They are prone to becoming dependent on substances, activities, and other people—just about anything. And they are at especially high risk of becoming addicted to drugs, alcohol, gambling, food, porn, exercise, work, and codependency.
It is theorized that 15% of Americans have a predisposition to addiction. Doctors and clinicians still debate whether or not there is an addictive personality. The National Institute on Drug Abuse calls it a brain disease. Although addictive personality has not been classified as a personality disorder by the American Psychological Association, there are common traits that people with a tendency have: certain characteristics that make them more susceptible to physical or psychological dependencies that can negatively affect their quality of life. of life. Not everyone who demonstrates these characteristics will develop an addiction.
A common feature of the addictive personality is poor stress management skills. Without the benefit of healthy coping skills, they are likely to use substances, activities, or other people as a way to manage their emotional discomfort and relieve stress. They have a tendency to self-medicate, believing they are only using it symptomatically, but actually using it as a way of coping with life. Some have social anxiety or have trouble letting their guard down. Substances help them let loose and have fun.
Many with addictive personalities suffer from insecurity or are excessive approval seekers. They may use substances such as drugs and alcohol to provide a temporary sense of worth, a pseudo-identity. Although they are aware that the sense of value that is achieved in this way is false, they like the way it feels and yearn for it more and more. They may turn to addictive substances to deal with insecurity or ultimately feel powerless to stop an addiction once it starts.
Another marker of the addictive personality is the lack of ability to get in touch with feelings. The feelings are there, but they can be too painful to look at. Feeling makes them feel vulnerable and out of control. This causes someone to focus outward, looking for anything that makes them feel good inside and comfort them.
Those with addictive personalities often have a need for instant gratification. They crave the fast, powerful sensation that makes them feel good in a way nothing else can. The feeling of euphoria is short-lived, so they are constantly looking for more. This sometimes occurs with those who have obsessive or compulsive personalities, and those who are perfectionists.
The inability to form emotional bonds with other people is another characteristic of people with addictive personalities. Many of these people cannot make relationship commitments. Some withdraw from others believing that trusting relationships are unattainable. Some have brief, superficial relationships filled with emotional turmoil and often with people who also have addictive or abusive personalities. Substances like drugs or alcohol become substitutes for the bond they lack with others.
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