What is an addictive personality?
That’s a very controversial topic in the field. Research has not shown to be that there is a specific addictive personality but the reality is there are some people that are looking for good feelings all the time. They kind of organize their life around good feelings. So, there’s part of that addictive personality, part of the addictive personality is very impulsively do things without a lot of forethought, there’s not thinking about consequences.
And more importantly, will this classification assist you in saving the addict’s life? After all, that is what you are after. An intellectual understanding of the problem, which yet leaves you unable to help, is useless. The dictionary defines “addictive personality” as one which is “characterized by or susceptible to addiction”. Once a person is an addict, their personality is definitely “characterized by addiction”. So that does us no good. Regarding susceptibility: What makes one “susceptible to addiction”? To understand that, we must realize what all drugs (including alcohol, which is a drug) have in common. Drugs are basically pain killers. They kill physical and emotional pain. A person may start using drugs or alcohol to numb pain, leading to addiction. People addicted to prescription pain medication were simply trying to numb pain. To a young person, boredom may be mentally and emotionally painful, and the drugs provide relief and escape from that pain. Being unable to communic
