# "Addictive personality" - really? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 8, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357 "2009-07-08T19:24:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357/21 "2009-07-09T07:06:34Z")
I’ve read (though not seen it cited across cultures) that if you change the legality of drug use, it doesn’t effect the number of addicts. Similarly, if you take a group of college students, where all of them drink copious quantities of alcohol regularly for four years, nearly all of them will stop on graduation day and have no particular issue, while as there’s some percent who’ll be unable to stop and they end up suffering for it. Whether this is a “personality” issue or a personal physiology issue though, and whether it’s really anything more than odds (i.e. _someone_ has to get addicted), I couldn’t say though. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357/22 "2009-07-09T09:38:40Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > 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. There’s been experiments where people with severe pain ( after a surgery, say ) were given buttons that would give them a dose of morphine whenever they pressed it; very few became addicted, they just used it less and less as the pain faded. When they screened for people with previous addiction problems, almost none became addicted. People in pain just don’t react the same way to opiates as people not in pain do. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357/23 "2009-07-09T16:52:31Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > _“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. This. I think this quote is the most accurate description of addiction possible. I don’t have time to find a cite, but I’ve read of studies showing that addiction (opioid, I think) changes the physical structure of the brain. I can’t recall if this applies to non-chemical sources like gambling or sex, but it would be surprising if they weren’t pretty similar. While you might have factors in your personality or physiology that predispose you to, say, alcoholism, once you start your brain begins to need the alcohol to function normally. I don’t know, after stopping the chemical/behavior, whether the brain can go back to normal, but it’ll be like learning to walk after an amputation and artificial limb. Things might work, but they just won’t be the same. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357/24 "2009-07-09T16:53:03Z")
> [@Etumretniw](#): > > I wouldn’t chose the word “personality”, but: > [This wiki page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholism) 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. Yeah, you can google and find tons of papers that point to a genetic link for alcoholism. [Linky](http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0847/is_n3_v14/ai_11129865/). They have done studies on identical twins separated at birth. If one twin is an alcoholic the chances of the other twin being an alkie is ~ 80% IIRC. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357/25 "2009-07-10T00:29:42Z")
I wonder if that is because alcoholism is just the one manifestation of addiction that’s been readily studied. I was a long-time smoker. I quit smoking ~20 years ago and my drug of choice changed to food. I don’t have any desire to compulsively drink, shop, gamble, eat mustard, or hop on one foot. It seems to me that if brain chemistry was the root of the problem, then I should have problems controlling other behaviors as well, no? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357/26 "2009-07-10T00:55:32Z")
> [@Ruby](#): > > I was a long-time smoker. I quit smoking ~20 years ago and my drug of choice changed to food. I don’t have any desire to compulsively drink, shop, gamble, eat mustard, or hop on one foot. It seems to me that if brain chemistry was the root of the problem, then I should have problems controlling other behaviors as well, no? No, hopping on one foot is a symptom of Tourettes Syndrome and/or OCD. There is a whole spectrum of other disorders that can cause the others and don’t have to be related. I am a recovering alcoholic and it is hell on earth to get out of. Most males in my family on both sides are too even though I barely saw them since before I was 18. I have never tried any other drugs and the idea of stimulants or uppers repulses me and I have no interest. I also have little desire to gamble and I have only stepped foot in a casino five times in my whole life but I can see how some people can get addicted to it because the overall setup is designed to cause some people to react like lab rats given the appropriate stimulus. My academic background is in behavioral neuroscience and, despite the glossy magazine articles aimed at the general public, it is still very primitive and poorly understood. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357/27 "2009-07-10T05:22:17Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > There’s been experiments where people with severe pain ( after a surgery, say ) were given buttons that would give them a dose of morphine whenever they pressed it; very few became addicted, they just used it less and less as the pain faded. When they screened for people with previous addiction problems, almost none became addicted. People in pain just don’t react the same way to opiates as people not in pain do. Not just experiments – in may places the PCA (Patient-Controlled Anesthesia) machines are now the standard for post-operative pain. They load up the morphine and you dispense it when you need it by pressing a button, within limits (you can’t press it more than X times an hour, or whatever). And still, the rate of people who become addicted to opiates after treatment for pain like that is astonishingly low (on the order of .05%). ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357/28 "2009-07-10T05:28:29Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > 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? Very roughly, about 1/3 of people experience intense euphoria from opiates. My wife is among those who experience nothing but nausea, tiredness, and dizziness (though it does kill her pain). She very much dislikes it when she has to take painkillers. My brother, on the other hand, gets a massive high from them and loves opiates a lot. He feels the same way about alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357/29 "2009-07-10T15:34:06Z")
The incidence of addictive behaviours (sexual, gambling, etc) as a possible side effect to use of Miripex and Requip strongly suggest that there is a strong neurochemical component to addictions. ---
**Author:** ![Zackmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19adc/32.png) [@Zackmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zackmo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357/30 "2009-07-10T16:28:17Z")
Look at RPGs. People get addicted to them easily, and its not altogether pleasant grinding all day. Spending hours and hours doing something not fun? There is the perfect example. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357/31 "2009-07-10T16:33:04Z")
I absolutely believe in varying levels of addictiveness. I am the one who always leaves the half glass of wine on the table. I drink one glass of sangria in the summer and no more and am not interested in more. This isn’t because I have some great willpower, it’s just that I really don’t have any desire for more. I’ve never been drunk. When I have tried, I just get bored and irritated from trying to drink a lot. I don’t really get addicted to anything that much. Granted, I haven’t tried many drugs, so who knows, maybe I will succumb easily - but I think my whole personality leans away from it. I also don’t have depression - not that I am saying these two things are related, but I feel quite positive it’s all down to brain chemistry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-personality-really/502357.md?page=1)