Understanding Addiction
Articles on Addiction & Addiction Treatment
Addictive Personalities
Addictive relationships begin when a person repeatedly uses and event or object to seek relief or to avoid unpleasant feelings or situations. This is 'nurturing through avoidance' — an unnatural way of taking care of one’s emotional needs. At this point, addicts start to give up natural relationships and the relief they offer. They replace these relationships with the addictive relationship. Addicts seek serenity through an object or event. This is the beginning of the addictive cycle, which can be described as a downward spiral with many valleys and plateaus. This cycle causes an emotional craving that results in mental preoccupation. For an addict, the feeling of discomfort becomes a signal to act out, not a signal to connect with others or with oneself. The amount of mental obsession is often an indication of the stress in the addict’s life. Some addictions produce physical dependency that creates physical symptoms upon withdrawal (as with alcohol and other drugs). Many other types of recovering addicts — sex addicts, addictive gamblers, and addictive spenders — also reports physical symptoms when they stop acting out. This may be part of the grief process that takes place when ending an addictive relationship, or actual withdrawal symptoms, or a combination of both. The addictive personality gets created from the illness of addiction and represents a change resulting from the addictive process that takes place within a person. This personality does not exist prior to the illness of addiction, nor does it represent a predisposition to addiction; rather, it emerges from the addictive process. In the same way that cancer or other long-term illnesses can alter one’s personality, the illness of addiction also can affect an individual’s life and personality. The most significant aspect of the first stage of the addictive cycle is the creation of this addictive personality, wherein the personality is split into two separate and opposing identities - the Self and the Addict. The Self represents the “normal,” human side of the addicted person, while the Addict represents the side that is consumed and transformed by the addiction. Eventually, the addicted person forms a dependent relationship with his or her own addictive personality. Once an addictive personality is established within a person, the specific object or event of the addiction takes on less importance. When the Addict is firmly in control, addicted people can (and often do) switch objects of addiction as preferences change or as trouble arises with one particular object or event. Addicts who switch objects of addiction also know it’s a good way to get people off their backs. The Addict side of the personality is very important for recovering addicts to understand because it will stay with them for life. On some level, the Addict will always be searching for an object or some type of event with which to from an addictive relationship. On some level, the personality will always want to give the person the illusion that there is an object or event that can nurture him or her. The term “dry drunk” describes a person whose life is being controlled by an addictive personality despite abstinence from substance abuse, gambling, sexual addiction, and so on. Dry drunks still trust in the addictive process and cut themselves off from the natural forms of relationships they need to be nurtured. People in a recovery program for alcohol addiction, for example, need to clearly understand that they are prone to form a possible addictive relationship with another object or event, such as food or gambling. For these people, sobriety acquires a new dimension: instead of only monitoring their relationship with alcohol, they also need to learn how to monitor the addictive part of themselves. The first step in recovery is the addict's acceptance of the dual personalities created in addiction. By accepting the two sides of their addiction, people often create a door that opens outward, allowing them to establish healthy relationships again. This also helps to free them from shame. In recovery, the person will need to take total responsibility for both the Self and the Addict. Denial of an addictive personality is part of a practicing addict’s life. Thus, admitting the presence of the addiction is the first step in recovery. By acknowledging and claiming the Addict side of his or her personality and then coming to understand and listen for addictive logic, the addicted person enters into recovery. Programs of recovery stress being totally honest with one’s Self, and listening to and believing in one’s Self, not one’s Addict. This is a preview click here for full article on addiction
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