Is there really such thing as having an addictive personality?
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What compels one person to want to use drugs again and another not to bother has a lot to do with previous life experience.
By Ian Hamilton
We’ve all heard the term ‘addictive personality’ used to describe that compulsion for chocolate, alcohol or even binge-watching a TV series.
Officially, psychiatry doesn’t recognise the term as a formal diagnosis. But there is clearly a difference between the way people manage their relationship with drugs, gambling and other potentially addictive behaviours. Some can take it or leave it, while others have less control over how much time and energy they spend on an activity or substance.
It’s this difference that’s fascinating to unpick. It reveals why some people are seemingly unable to control their drug use while others can. Even drugs like heroin or crack cocaine that we think of as highly addictive don’t render every user as a slave to repeated use. Conscripted American soldiers in Vietnam used heroin for months during the war but most were...
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