Why is it a myth to talk about “addictive personalities” (and what consequences do you have to think they exist)

During the 1990s, the term “addictive personality” was used by some pharmaceutical companies as part of the recommendations and warnings for some products, and perhaps also, ironically, to promote analgesic drugs that cause addiction.

This was the case of OxyContin, an opioid drug manufactured by the American pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma that could only be purchased with a prescription from a doctor.

At that time, while marketing its product, Purdue Pharma instructed its representatives to tell doctors that only people with an “addictive personality” were at risk of hooking up, despite knowing that it was highly addictive and widely consumed.

Of hecho, OxyContin and other medicines such as fentanyl son flagged as guilty of fueling the opioid crisis in the United Stateswhich caused more than half a million deaths in that country between 1999 and 2020.

But can you attribute the addiction to a substance to the personality? Are there people really more likely to develop an addiction?

According to Ian Hamilton, associate professor specializing in addictions at the University of York (United Kingdom), this is a concept that would seem ideal for the pharmaceutical industry.

“En cierto modo, les libra de culpa. The message is: ‘if you are so weak as to desarrollar a problem with our product, it is due to your personality, you have nothing to do with us’ ”, she explains.

More complex

Many psychiatrists and addiction experts claim that there are no scientific tests that support this idea of ​​the addictive personality.

It also warns that the concept is harmful, since it suggests that people have little or no control over their addiction.

They admit that there are some links between certain traits of personality and addiction, but they are much more complex than what the statement of “addictive personality” suggests.

Mark Griffiths, Professor of Addictions in Behavior at the British University of Nottingham Trent, classifies the concept of “addictive personality” as an “absolute myth”.

“For there to be something like an addictive personality, what is being said is that there is a trait that predicts addiction and just addiction,” Griffiths said. “There are no scientific tests that there is a trait that predicts addiction and addiction alone,” she emphasized.

The addictive personality “is a black and white way of thinking about something that is very complex”, says Anshul Swami, a psychiatrist specializing in mental health and addictions in adults at the Nightingale Hospital in London.

“There is not a type of personality (that predicts addiction) and there is not a person that is equal to another addict”.

This is not to say that certain personality traits are not associated “with the acquisition, development and maintenance of addictive behaviors”, says Griffiths.

El huevo y la hen

Neurosis or neuroticism, for example, tends to be associated with many forms of addiction.

Considered as one of the five great personality traits, neuroticism is defined as the degree to which a person reacts to perceived threats and stressful situations. Very neurotic people are anxious and prone to negative thoughts.

According to an analysis of 175 studies, substance abuse disorders are associated with high levels of neurosis and low levels of consciousness (the degree to which a person shows self-control).

The investigation found that behavioral addictions, such as internet addiction, physical exercise or compulsive shopping, for example, are also associated with neuroticism.

“If you are neurotic, you are very anxious”, says Griffiths.

“The people tend to use addictive behaviors or substances as a way to manage their neurotic traits. The majority of addictions have to do with overcoming situations and are symptomatic of other underlying problems, such as depression or neuroticism”, explained Nottingham professor Trent.

But there are no studies that demonstrate that all people with addictions can suffer from neuroticism.

“I can find many people who are neurotic and not addicted. Neuroticism is associated with addiction, but not prediction”, clarified Griffiths.

As Hamilton points out, it can be “terribly difficult” to figure out who is the first when it comes to substance dependence.

“High levels of depression or anxiety are observed among people who become addicted to drugs. Pero entonces se convierte en el huevo y la gallina. Was it the neuroticism that took the person to the drug, or was it the addiction to cocaine over a long period of time that affected her state of mind?

numerous factors

“The additions have many nuances and are multifactorial”, highlighted Anshul Swami.

There are investigations that show that addictions can be influenced both by genetics and by a wide range of environmental factors, including group pressure, early exposure to substances and physical or sexual abuse.

According to a study, among opiate users there are 2.7 times more probabilities that they were abused in childhood, whether they were sexual, physical or both, than among those who do not consume them.

“Psychosocial factors such as violence, sexual abuse and emotional neglect are closely related to addiction,” said Swami.

“Many people say: ‘I have a history of addiction, it’s due to my genetics’. But when you go deeper into your clinical history, you discover that you’ve drunk a lot, you’ve suffered neglect, abuse, trauma and deprivation. All of this has been transmitted from generation to generation and has flourished in the form of addiction”.

Another investigation, from 2018, found that the ancient HK2 retrovirus (Hexokinase 2), which is found around the gene involved in the release of the chemical substance dopamine, is found with greater frequency in drug addicts.

One of the conclusions was that the people who suffered disorders due to substance abuse had two or three times more chances of having HK2 integrated into their genome, which indicates a strong association with addiction.

However, Swami claims that this study does not suggest that some people have a “more addictive personality” than others.

“This preliminary HK2 report does not explain why an ever-increasing number of patients develop addiction later in life,” he says. “Si la tuvieran y fuera associativa o causal would surely be expressed before”.

while impulsiveness and gender of people as risk factors for addiction, Hamilton warns that there may be important gaps in the data.

An example is the statistics in the United States that establish that 11.5% of men and children have an addiction to substance abuse, compared to 6.4% of women and girls.

There are several reasons, according to Hamilton, since men, especially teenagers, tend to take more risks and are more impulsive.

And it is less likely that women seek treatment due to child care concerns and stigmatization.

fatalistic vision

Despite the lack of scientific evidence to back it up, the term “addictive personality” continues to be widely used.

“You have to be careful with your language, because people internalize it”, emphasizes the professor at the University of York.

“The idea of ​​the addictive personality deprives you of all hope… it tells you that this is the path you have to follow and that you have no control over it”.

Swami agrees that the concept is “fatalistic” and unrealistic. “It prevents people from taking responsibility for their problem and finding constructive solutions to improve“, the pin.

For Griffiths, there are many addicted people who use the idea of ​​the addictive personality as “justification of their behavior”.

“When someone says ‘I have an addictive personality’, what they’re actually saying is ‘I can never be cured’”, he says.

“Addictions are very complex biological, psychological and social illnesseslike any other disease on the planet”, added Swami.

“Everyone is looking for a simple answer, but there is none”, he concluded. (I)