Addictive Personality?

Signs of a Super Dad: A Super Dad prepares Thanksgiving dinner and its Gooood.

I was reading an article online today. Here it is:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=950DE1DF1138F93BA25752C0A965948260

It is an article in the New York Times about Addictive Personality. Why am I bringing this up? Well, having a general interest from spending a few years working in the psychology field, I think psychological disorders are neat. The Addictive Personality is the next big thing in both the world of psychology and in the general public. To sum up, the article defines an Addictive Personality as having consistent/compulsive behavior that result in some type of “high” that as a result brings personal harm or harm to others. That there are “hard addictions”, such as drug and alcohol use, gambling, sex, and “softer addictions” such as TV watching, running, and internet porn. That people with this type of personality might get one addiction under control just to fall under the spell of another. I would argue that 90% of the population could fall under the Addictive Personality label. That an Addictive Personality is directly related to society’s ideals of what it means to be successful, not to mention a basic instinctual drive.

I know this seems like a pretty ridiculous statement, and my opinion is based completely on anecdotal evidence. But, hear me out. Let me first start with the basic instinctual drive. We have to eat. Eating gives you a “high”. Why does it? Well my view is that a thousand years ago if I would risk my life trying to kill a wooly mammoth with a stick, all the while avoiding large predatory animals with sharp pointy teeth, it better be the best tasting steak I have ever eaten. We all love good food. We all know that “high” feeling after eating something very yummy. It’s not the same as freebasing crack, but it is still a “high”. Is eating an addiction? For most of America yes. McDonalds hasn’t served billions because it is good for you. People eat it because it gives them that “high” feeling. I don’t keep eating pizza and wings for my health. Logically there is no reason to eat food that is killing you. We eat it because it feels good. This is the perfect example of an addiction, bringing harm to oneself as a result of getting that “high”. Of course, one could argue its all about moderation. That it isn’t an addiction if you’re eating moderately and not becoming overweight. This is true but how many people actually eat in moderation? If 2/3 of America could be considered overweight it is not many. http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/news/testimony/obesity07162003.htm

Now, how is an Addictive Personality directly related to the drive to become successful in our society? Addiction to ones career. The article pointed out a very interesting fact that doctors have the highest rate of opiate addiction in any group. Doctors are perfect examples of what I mean. Would you not say our society says being a doctor means you are successful? Just think how blindly dedicated a person has to be to become a doctor. The amount of pain and sacrifice they have to go through. The amount of stress they experience to obtain their standing in life, and we all know how harmful to the body stress is. The pressure they put on both themselves and their loved ones. Why would anyone go through such an ordeal? Perhaps for the “high”? That “high” feeling of accomplishment? The “high” you get from knowing you helped someone? Maybe even the “high” you get from your monetary standing compared to others? I am not a doctor, but I am pretty sure you don’t go through all that pain and anguish for no reason. They do it because something about it makes them feel good and it’s enough of a “high” feeling to keep them coming back. Is this not an addiction? How much different is this compared to other “highly successful” people. How many families are destroyed because a father or mother never sees their family because they are “addicted” to the job? I don’t have any statistics to back this up, but I would guess there are vastly greater numbers of people addict to their jobs compared to drugs.

Now, I would even go as far as to say that if you picked a random person off the street you would find out they are “addicted” to something. Think about yourself. Is their not something you do almost everyday that could be considered harmful to either yourself or your family? Doing something that causes too much stress, eating too many calories, spending too much time on the computer instead of paying attention to your kids. So what I am saying is this: there is no such thing as an Addictive Personality. We all have our addictions, some might have gotten into more serious ones, but we all still have them. Good or bad if most of the population has something it is not a disorder. Saying a human has an Addictive Personality is like diagnosing a dog with OCD because it can’t help chasing a ball. It just doesn’t make sense. Having an Addictive Personality is part of the human experience.

Thank you for reading. Tell a friend.
I have tried to enable showing comments directly under my posts. Some people are posting very insightful opinions that I hope all will read.