How to Know if You Are Prone to Addiction

Exercise You Accept An Addictive Personality? iii Signs & When To Worry

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This morning, I picked upwards my phone to look at Instagram no less than 20 times. I'd just posted something new and wanted to know what people were proverb about it. Merely every bit I reached for my telephone all the same again, a idea crossed my mind: Was I addicted to my phone?

I tend to go really excited almost things, like new hobbies and activities, and this felt a little flake addictive, too. I'd heard people talk most addictive personalities on occasion, and so I wondered: Do I accept an addictive personality?

What is an "addictive personality"?

"Addictive personality" is described past the American Addiction Centers equally an informal term that links item personality traits to a college risk of addiction or other problematic behaviors, similar drug abuse, gambling, or fifty-fifty constant social media use.

"The term is used colloquially to refer to people who accept tendencies that appear to pb to addiction-like behaviors," says George Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

"Addictive personality" is a term oftentimes used in association with alcoholism, only you can too feel fond to other things, like certain activities, people, foods, or physical objects. According to J. Wesley Boyd, Chiliad.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School's Center for Bioethics, behaviors similar gambling, frequent social media use, or even video gaming can also exist addictive. "For people who are addicted to these behaviors—and even those who just derive intense enjoyment from them—engaging in these behaviors can upshot in the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is the final mutual pathway of basically every drug of abuse," he says.

He also notes that yous can fifty-fifty be addicted to another person in a dating relationship because of this neurochemical response. That said, an unhealthy addiction is very unlike from healthy enthusiasm.

"Being fond to something means it has taken over your life and that you are sacrificing important things in your life in service of the addiction," says Boyd. Koob describes habit similarly as "being stuck in a cycle in which a person binges on a substance, feels discomfort when the substance wears off, and is preoccupied with procuring and using the substance again." (And again, this doesn't apply only to physical substances—information technology can besides be behaviors or experiences.)

On the flip side, "enthusiasm means that you might love something and even that yous might look forward to information technology much of the fourth dimension, only you are not and will not compromise basic important elements in your life," Boyd says.

Some experts believe that the term "addicted" is used besides loosely to explain behaviors that are closer to enthusiasm, so Boyd uses exercise as an example of this distinction: An enthusiastic exerciser volition look forward to workouts but probably won't piece of work out when they're sick, he says. An practise "addict," on the other hand, might continue exercising even when they have the flu, despite adverse outcomes.

Is "addictive personality" a myth?

While "addictive personality" is a common phrase in public discourse, it's not actually a medical or scientific term. The scientific community has non even so identified an exact personality type that corresponds with heightened addiction risks—although scientific inquiry has shown that there are a diversity of personality traits and genetic combinations that tin lead to a higher risk for developing addictions. Those factors are unlike for individual people.

"There are definitely individuals who are prone to become addicted in various ways," Boyd says, noting that addiction is oft a combination of both genetics and the environment. "Some of this is based on personal history, merely much of information technology is determined by having a family unit history of addiction."

In her volume Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Mode of Agreement Addiction, wellness journalist Maia Szalavitz reports that no single personality profile has been linked to habit, despite decades of inquiry on the subject. If you call back you're addicted to something because of who you lot are or because of your personality, you've been led astray.

Signs of an "addictive personality."

"Although I practise not believe in the concept of addictive personality, this does not mean that personality factors are not of import in the conquering, evolution, and maintenance of addictive behaviors," Marker Griffiths, Ph.D., a professor of behavioral habit at Nottingham Trent Academy, wrote in a 2017 review. "They clearly are."

There are a few signs and signals to spotter for that might indicate that y'all may accept a college take chances for developing an addiction. These signs include:

1. Keeping habits that reduce your overall well-being. "If someone is addicted to a substance or a behavior, they will appoint in the habit even though major elements of their lives might be placed in jeopardy equally a result, including their jobs, housing, and principal beloved relationships," Boyd says.
2. You can't quit. Someone with an "addictive personality" will be unable to stop a certain behavior on their own, fifty-fifty if they desire to change, Boyd says. This is usually because of the misery associated with quitting.
3. An addiction to some other substance. Research shows people who are addicted to one substance or activeness, like cannabis or tobacco use, are more than likely to become fond to another kind of substance, like alcohol.

Koob says we must think, though, that these are just gamble factors. "They are non guarantees that a person will develop a substance utilize disorder," he says.

Traits of people with a loftier risk for habit.

People who are at a college take a chance for addiction may have some of the following markers:

• A close family member with an addiction. Boyd says individuals born to parents who have an addiction are more probable to become fond themselves, and lots of research backs this up. Overall, it appears that genetic heritability affects addiction by between forty and 70%—but Koob is careful to note that this genetic component comes from many different pathways, and the likelihood of developing an addiction is due to both the environment and your genetics.
• An OCD diagnosis. The American Addiction Centers highlights that several other disorders, including OCD, are more likely to co-occur with addiction.
• Impulsive tendencies and trouble self-regulating. A report about video game addiction plant that impulsive people might be more prone to developing an habit. Impulsiveness is divers as making decisions based on immediate impulses versus long-term goals. Koob says the likelihood of substance misuse is particularly higher in people who have trouble regulating those impulses.
• Depression self-esteem. For certain people, low cocky-esteem too appears to exist associated with a higher risk for developing an addiction, according to the study about video gamers.
• ADHD. A sibling study from 1997 found certain people with ADHD may be more than probable to develop substance use disorders, and more recent studies accept plant ADHD and substance use disorders tend to co-occur in the same patients. Ane 2010 study found ADHD and substance cravings "share some neurobiological similarities," and patients with addiction tend to have more than cravings when they as well have ADHD. While this doesn't mean that all people with ADHD will develop an addiction, there is a higher risk compared to the full general population.
• Social anxiety. People who feel lonely and anxious during social events are more than likely to develop problematic internet use tendencies, co-ordinate to a 2007 study. This may exist because scrolling the cyberspace can feel soothing in the moment, which helps to reduce overall feelings of anxiety or discomfort.
• A traumatic history. Koob says people who have a history of abuse or trauma may be more than likely to initiate substance abuse in society to reduce their discomfort. This is peculiarly true for people who feel depressed or broken-hearted post-obit the traumatic event.

Again, Koob is careful to note, "While there are tendencies that increase the risk of a substance utilize disorder, they don't comprise a specific personality type, such as an addictive personality."

When to worry.

If you're feeling concerned about being too attached to a habit, Boyd says the first step is to try to cease the behavior on your own. "See if your own awareness of what is happening is enough to change the behavior," he says. If you lot're able to finish, it'due south probably not an addiction. (The NIAAA website too has a useful tool called Rethinking Drinking that tin help y'all evaluate your own relationship to booze.)

If you tin't end the behavior on your own, it's time to seek professional help. Boyd recommends Alcoholics Anonymous or other self-help groups as a style to cope, in addition to making an date with a psychiatrist or psychologist who specializes in working with people who have addictive behaviors. The NIAAA also offers a Handling Navigator to help you detect providers in your area.

If you lot retrieve yous might have an addiction, consider reaching out to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Assistants via their helpline, at 800-662-4357. The National Drug Helpline likewise offers 24/7 help to people who are struggling with addiction: Telephone call 844-289-0879.

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