The Addictive Personality –
fact or fiction?

Few experts agree on a finite definition for addiction or what causes it.Some view it as a disease whilst others believe that certain of us are born with addictive personalities (and that it may be passed down by our parents).
One thing is for certain, addiction is a major global problem. It is not peculiar to the west and statistics show that men in all countries are more likely to be affected by addiction than women. Whilst this article certainly doesn’t set out to be the definitive wisdom on the topic of addiction it does try to draw attention to the ever present dangers we and our children face.
The United Nations suggests there are more than 8 million heroin users in the world, plus 13 million cocaine users, 141 million people who regularly use cannabis, nearly 230 million sedative addicts and 1100 million regular tobacco smokers.

Legal drug addiction
Around 2 million Britons are addicted to legal, over the counter, or prescription medicines - nothing covert or street credible in that, but at what cost to the NHS and why are Doctors prescribing all these sedatives and tranquilisers when they are known to be highly addictive? Are they not creating huge swathes of society unable to deal with day to day life or the parenting of their children without recourse to drugs? As the medical profession knows who these addicts are it should be directing more effective help towards them. What example does a constantly drugged up addicted parent set for its children? The idea that drug usage is fine… it doesn’t bear thinking about. What is the difference between the mother who uses illegally obtained heroin and the one who has a repeat description for some other mind numbing drug from the Doctor? One has to scrape together money to fund her habit and may not always have a reliable quality of drug supplied, the other has it handed on a plate, often for free. The reality is that they are both addicts, neither is better or worse than the other.

Alcohol
Other European countries seem able to educate their young to drink responsibly, whereas the UK is notorious for its binge culture, alcohol fuelled gang violence and alcoholism… Young Brits abroad on holiday are most countries’ biggest nightmare but as they spend so much they are tolerated. Many countries are now policing areas where Brits congregate much more vigorously and it can only be a matter if time before laws tighten up and more are incarcerated for anti-social behaviour.
Alcohol claims its British victims young. Even ten year olds are known to drink regularly and thirty five per cent of young males in the UK routinely drink to excess whilst under-age (as an act of bravado or response to peer pressure) and continue for several years, if not more, with many of them progressing to a lifetime of alcohol addiction. Recently released government reports show that liver disease is reaching epidemic proportions in young people – a direct result of alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse is not limited to the young. It occurs in all walks of life and these days with alcohol available at all hours of day in supermarkets and corner shops there are growing numbers of female alcoholics who drink “covertly” at home (and children who help themselves to what is left lying around).
It isn’t the case that it is only the down and outs on park benches who can be labelled as alcoholics. They are simply the most visible examples. Broken individuals who have lost everything, have nowhere to hide away, nowhere else to go and who no one wants to know any more. For them alcohol is all that is left in their lives. But these hard core alcoholics are the absolute minority. Far greater numbers of alcoholics from all walks of life either live undetected or are able to maintain some form of smokescreen, project an outward semblance of “normality” or are even viewed as “harmless characters”, eccentrics, or the “life and soul of the party.” Most have countless drinking cronies but few real friends.
Alcohol misuse affects professionals and the unemployed, artists and labourers, land owners and flat renters, students and retirees…. Alcohol is not proud.
It can be of the cheap mass produced variety or distinctly upmarket. It mixes in all circles and its sheer availability and social acceptability makes it seem innocuous and certainly less dangerous and a whole lot “cleaner” than its bedfellows heroin or crack. Glorified by celebrities on their own selfdestruct missions which start with alcohol and progress to alcohol, heroin and crack… copied endlessly by gullible young people. Used as a prop by the elderly – medicinal purposes… the excuse of communion wine, celebration champagne, tonic wine, infant teething formulae… there is a drink and a brand for everyone no matter how young, no matter how old. Is it any wonder that children boast of being “out of it” and pass around bottles of cheap vodka as though it were lemonade, in every park in every town. Young girls drinking themselves senseless, blacking out, unable to remember what they did or with who. Slightly older drunken oafs who pour out of clubs and pubs to brawl in the streets – bravado boosted by alcohol. Chancing upon and beating helpless tramps to death in drunken frenzies. Or hurling themselves from cliffs into the sea. Or breaking windows. Or forgetting to stub out their cigarettes and setting fire to the sofa; or getting behind the wheels of cars and killing innocent people… It is not a problem we can ignore any longer. And how many or how few of these people will “grow up” able to control their relationships with alcohol? How many will become lifetime alcoholics?
33,000 deaths a year in the UK are directly attributable to alcohol. One in four hospital admissions is alcohol related – the results of alcohol fuelled street violence, alcoholic poisoning (prevalent amongst female teenage binge drinkers), alcohol related accidents, as well as the frightening rise in alcohol driven domestic violence and child abuse, drink driving victims and more… If a single substance is crying out for stronger restrictions over its availability and ability to wreak havoc then it is everyday common or garden alcohol.
In the face of these statistics and the harrowing images they conjure up it would be easy to forget addiction to nicotine or to the havoc wreaked by addiction to gambling, or indeed to other compulsive, life destroying behaviours. But how do we recognise that we or our loved ones have a problem? And how do we deal with it?

When does an obsessive interest become an addiction?
The chap who has a pint of beer on his way home from work every night certainly has a habit but if he has just the one pint in the pub, and no more, then he can be described as a regular drinker with a defined pattern to his life, but not an alcoholic – unless he also drinks his way through a case of beer or a bottle of scotch every night when he gets home. Contrast that with the fellow who routinely calls at the pub on his way home from work “just for one” and stays for another then another then another – regardless of when he has said he’ll be home, regardless of any arrangements that he has made. He’ll drink until he is out of funds or has run out of people who’ll buy him another… or it has reached closing time. Nothing can take the place of drinking in his life. If he has to go somewhere then he’ll be sure there’s a pub on the way. If he is flying anywhere then he’s the chap who checks in early to get the maximum amount of alcohol into his system before he gets on the plane. Destination anywhere the drink is cheap. Forget the school open night or concert – if there’s no bar he won’t be there… Alcohol rules and affects every aspect of his existence which is a life of ever decreasing interests, ever decreasing friendships and one long round of drinks.
Juxtapose the office social or wedding do. Everyone gets a bit merry but most are fully able to control their intake and exit gracefully when they want to go home… but there are always a couple of people who simply don’t know when to stop and who become a liability or worse. They do it often enough that everyone knows they have a problem but don’t see enough of them to realise how big a problem it is. Whether it is the way that Auntie Glad has knocked back the sherries since Arthur died and the fact that she seriously smells and her clothes are stained and unkempt… or the way in which the office manager Bill always downs too many scotches and tries it on with the girls from accounts. The same Bill can usually be found in the station bar where he has a couple before getting his train home and another in the local when he gets to his stop… we hope he doesn’t then drive home but we don’t know for sure. He is a typical frustrated middle manager... gone as far as he can in his job… and the only way now will be down as he has started to look the worse for wear on arrival in the mornings and someone said he keeps Scotch in a coke bottle in his office drawer… it is merely a matter of time before he is shown the door…
It is said that once the substance – whether it is drink or drugs – becomes more important than anything else then the affected person has crossed the line from being a user or an abuser to becoming an addict. Hence we see people who we previously knew to be interested in a wide range of activities, devoted to their families, active in their communities, holding down responsible jobs, working towards university degrees etc… disown and discard each of these facets of their lives because they don’t fit in around their reliance on the alcohol or their drug of choice. Parents lose their relationships with their children, families are shattered, old friends discarded, as the addict graduates towards those who share the addiction, are non-judgemental or who can supply the substance needed. If the only way to raise enough money for drink and drugs is to sell everything they own, to steal or to prostitute themselves then that is exactly what they will do. Much as the lay person might believe they can help the addicted loved one to “get better” it is a near impossibility to do so unless the addict accepts that he or she has a problem and seriously wants to change. Even then without professional support which is in short supply no matter how much money can be paid for it… there is no question that helping someone to achieve recovery is a massive challenge.
Is it not better then that we take the lead with our children and let them know in no uncertain terms how fragile and precious life is and show how they can enjoy themselves without “being out of it” and without risking a fall into addiction…