Inspired by this thread, where someone implied that you would only get addicted (to whatever) if you have an addictive personality.
I’m skeptical, but then, I’m not a doctor or a psychologist, and I know a few people who were light smokers (say 1 or 2 cigarettes a day) and who quit pretty much over night with little problems. I’ve attempted to quit smoking a few times and the longest stretch was about 5 months (if I ever make it that long again it’s going to be forever, by the way - no matter how sure I am that “just one” will be fine).
Anyway, what’s the straight dope? Are some people really much more easily addicted to “everything” or is it mostly a question of what you’re actually trying or do some people get more addicted to nicotine and other people to alcohol?
Some people have different physiologies. For instance, some people experience intense euphoria from opiates, while others just get a mild effect, while others become nauseated. If you’re one of the people who get intense euphoria from opiates you’re at much higher risk of addiction to opiates.
Most people who are prescribed opiates for pain relief have little trouble quitting. They may have physical withdrawal, but they deal with the discomfort and then they’re done.
Interesting, I always assumed that most people got euphoric from opiates. Does that mean that most people actually won’t enjoy heroin if they tried?
Anyway, I’m assuming that these kinds of effects affect different groups of people depending on the kind of drug/activity. Or am I mistaken?
Also: is it possible that some people just have an easier time to quit an addiction, instead of not getting addicted (sort of the opposite of an addictive personality)? Does that make sense?
ETA: this is not all directed at you, Lemur866. Everybody else feel free to join in.
My WAG is that when people say “addictive personality” what they really mean* is someone whose brain is, for whatever reason, more prone to becoming physically addicted to certain substances.
Some people just really get off on being high or really don’t like reality. For them, it’s just really easy to get hooked on stuff.
Actually, what “addictive personality” REALLY means according to the English major who still lives in my head is "someone whose personality - their charm and magnetism and intelligence - are addictive to others. And possibly more so to people with the other kind of “addictive personality.” But, y’know, I’m kind of a dork like that.
There are some people who seem to move from one addiction to another. The stereotype is the AA meeting full of cigarette-smoking, coffee-chugging former alcoholics.
The explanation I’ve heard from psychologists who buy into it is that certain people are particularly prone to looking for ritual, repetition and predictable results. Drugs fit this because of the chemical effect and because of how they become associated with other places or things. For example, some smokers have trouble quitting because some activity (breakfast, for example) doesn’t seem complete without a cigarette. Long after they’ve beaten any addiction to nicotine, they’ll still want a cigarette to complete the ritual.
My father is someone who fits the “addictive personality” type - he smoked for a while, then he drank for a while, then he became obsessed with self-help seminars, then he got really involved in a church, then he manically fixed up the house… and now is back to smoking after 20 years without tobacco. I suspect there was a period of porn addiction in there somewhere. It’s always something with him, even when it’s not a substance.
Vicodin is considered an opioid, if memory serves. Neither my wife nor I can figure out why anyone would become addicted at any dose - it’s a painkiller to us with no pleasurable (or noticeable) side effects.
Percoset, on the other hand… I could get into that.
I think it’s supposed to have something to do with dopamine regulation in certain centers of the brain. They just don’t make enough dopamine on their own. When they encounter something like cocaine, which stimulates dopamine production, they feel so much better, the addiction cycle kicks in fast and hard.
Not an expert, but to me “addictive personality” is a misleading term, as it’s generally about brain chemistry. There is no question that some people are more susceptible to addiction than others. For some people it would be hard to get addicted to anything, for others there’s a potential to get addicted to ANYTHING, and then there are a lot of people somewhere in the middle. There are true physiological/chemical addictions and addictions that are more behavioral (gambling, food, sex, shopping, whatever); some, like smoking, can be a little of both. I enjoy an occasional drink, even more than one every now and then, but alcohol just doesn’t do anything for me that’s addictive. (I’ve not tried any other drugs, legal or otherwise, that might be addicting.) Yet, I know I have some very mild OCD tendencies, and have struggled with compulsive overeating. I can understand the temptations of other behavioral addictions. On the third hand, I have a brother who has a food problem, an on-and-off alcohol problem, an on-and-off smoking habit, and a bona fide gambling addiction. And lord knows what else.
An excellent book that talks about smoking addiction in a larger context is The Tipping Point. It’s more about why some people take up smoking in the first place, but it has a place if you want to learn more.
ETA: Another interesting perspective is the movie Traffic – the difference between Topher Grace’s character and Erika Christensen’s character and their response to drugs – and how Erika’s addiction is different from her parents – is interesting.
Dude, are you kidding? I had a presciption for Vicodin for migraines. Not only did it kill the migraine when nothing else would work, but once it kicked in, I was all warm and fuzzy and the world was a wonderful place. Went from feeling -6 to +8.
People that are addicted to prescription painkillers don’t usually swallow them. They usually crush them and snort them.
This gets a higher percentage of the drug into your system much more quickly than by swallowing a pill.
Pills are made to have a certain percentage of them get digested by your stomach, leaving the the rest to do its thing (relieve pain).
Snorting the crushed pill gets the stuff pretty much directly into your system, the length of time it takes is measured in seconds. And since your sinuses won’t digest the stuff you snorted, you are getting pretty much all of the painkiller into your system. Not the small percentage the pharmaceutical company had prepared for you, assuming you take it correctly.
My point being, even if a supposed bad ass prescription pain killer doesn’t feel so special, that’s because you’re using it correctly.
It often progresses to that, yes, but here in the oxycontin epicenter it’s considered to be a sign that you’re pretty damn far gone. Everyone around here starts out swallowing the damn things.
I certainly believe in the idea of “proneness to addiction.” But, like other people are pointing out, this can mean a lot of different things, and be for a lot of different reasons. I don’t think you’re talking about a single monolithic trait.
Individual physiologies are wacky things, and commonly known drug reactions are a matter of percentages, not a mandate. It takes a lot of alcohol to get me drunk, but I always throw up if I manage it (which is why I have studiously avoided it since freshman year of college. Not the drinking, the getting drunk.). My parents were normal with alcohol until my dad started to self-medicate his uncontrolled pain with it. But Mom’s father was an alcoholic. I get nothing but pain relief from the few heavy pain killers I’ve been prescribed after surgeries and accidents, and I need more than most to get even that. My mom has been offered Oxycontin any number of times by her doctors, but always turns it down in favor of Vicodin, because the former doesn’t help her pain but the latter does, despite being considered weaker. My father had the same problem with pain meds that I do, but was almost painfully sensitive to psychiatric medication and ended up in a coma for a month from neuroleptic malignant syndrome. I’ve never tried antipsychotics, but I react fairly normally to the psychiatric medications that I do use - except that I at first get the wacky symptoms that the doctor needs to check five pages down in the Big Book of Drug Info to find out that three other people in the studies got it too, like breast pain from Lamictal. Marijuana did nothing to me when I tried it a few times in college, but both my parents use it the normal way. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
“I don’t understand people who have one drink. I don’t understand people who leave half a glass of wine on the table. I don’t understand people who say they have had enough. How can you have enough of feeling like this? How can you not want to feel like this longer? My brain works differently.” ~~Leo McGarry (West Wing)
That pretty much says it for me.
On the other end of the spectrum, after snorting has lost it’s appeal, they can grind the stuff up and use it as a suppository. The really hard-core druggies used to do this with Ecstacy, but I assume it would work with most prescription drugs.
I wouldn’t chose the word “personality”, but: This wiki page tells us that alcoholism is genetic. Or rather, that “9% of the general population is predisposed to alcoholism based on genetic factors”.
I’m not sure how good of a cite that wiki page is in itself, but I’m pretty certain it has been scientifically studied, and that there are some papers out there for whoever can be bothered to look them up.
