There’s No Such Thing As An Addictive Personality

The suggestion that you can have an addictive personality is an insult to those who have additions. Being “addicted” to chocolate, sex or video games is not the same as being hooked on drugs and alcohol.

The whole point about addiction is that it can happen to anyone. You don’t have to have a certain personality to be an alcoholic. Alcoholics are introverts, extroverts, and everything in between. They are tall and short. They are smart and they are dumb. The only thing they have in common is that when they drink they can’t stop.

Don’t fool yourself. The only reason you’re not strung out on cocaine is that you don’t use it. It’s not that you have a non-cocaine personality. It’s not your ability to laugh at yourself, or be serious, or be anything else. Drug addiction can happen to anyone.

It might sound cute to say that you’re addicted to ice cream. But the truth is that a bad habit is not an addiction. Alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana change your brain. The synapses of users are not normal. Drugs impact the release, reuptake and reception of neurotransmitters.

Addition is not a matter of traits, Big Five dimensions or psychoanalytic libido. It’s chemistry, not personality.