People who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, as well as those who are obviously easily addicted to behaviors such as videogames and gambling, have what is called an “addictive personality.” While this is not an actual clinical psychological diagnosis, here are some personality traits that you will notice as common denominators in people with addictions.
Image source: mental.healthguru.com
The Addictive Personality Traits
Psychologists and doctors can sometimes easily tell when a person has an addiction just by seeing them. It comes as a “sense” after a long experience of dealing with people with addictions. So what are the things they see?
Here are some behaviors that most people with addiction tend to have:
- Having anxiety
- Having depression
- Seems awkward
- Impatient
- Arrogant
- Angry and aggressive
- Anxious
- Asks for narcotic medications, usually without a valid reason
As an ordinary individual, you can also recognize certain traits and attitudes that tend to co-occur in people with addiction:
- Being impulsive
- Constantly seeking excitement or thrill
- Restless search for new sensations or stimuli
- Wanting or feeling alienated from society (anti-social)
- Leaning towards deviant behavior
- Not wanting to conform to norms
- Impatience when it comes to delayed gratification
There are, however, people with diagnosed personality disorders that co-occur with their addiction. Here are these personality disorders
Personality Disorders in/with Addiction
Anti-social Personality Disorder
Having no regard for social norms and apathy towards people’s feelings. It also includes the following characteristics:
- Resorting to law-breaking behavior
- Defying authority
- Lying
- Conning other people by manipulation
- Failing to plan ahead
- Aggressive, irritable, and violent
- Reckless behavior
- Failing to be reliable especially when it comes to responsibilities
- Lacking remorse for wrongful acts
Borderline Personality Disorder
- Fear of isolation
- Fear of abandonment
- Being in one unstable relationship after another
- Seeing people only as either wonderful or awful
- Poor self-image or lack of self-esteem
- Being impulsive
- Suicidal behavior
- Self-harming behavior such as cutting
- Intense mood swings
- Uncontrollable anger
- Paranoia
General Behaviors in Addiction
For an addicted person, the substance or the activity becomes more important than anything, even their health and safety. They will lie, manipulate, deceive, and resort to all sorts of things just to get what they want, which is the fulfillment of their craving or addiction. It is compulsive and chronic. They will have no qualms about stealing or pawning anything from your home or that of a friends’. After all, friends and family don’t matter much anymore compared to the need to feed the addiction.
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