Addictive Personality, Where do you fit in

I just watched this thing that said people fall into three categories.

1/3 do not have an addictive personality. They can smoke, drink, even do drugs and not get addicted.
1/3 are middle of the road and might get addicted to some things.
1/3 are easily addicted, it doesn’t take much. One cigarette, one drink, one potato chip etc.

I fall into the not addictive at all personality. I’ve known this since I was a child. I could eat one chip, one cookie, and I’d be fine.
I have had to take very powerful pain medications in the past and have had no need to continue, zero desire or need to keep going. I couldn’t understand how people became so addicted.
The one thing I’d say was somewhat hard to kick was my love for Coke Cola, however I did completely give it up.
It’s really weird in my family, we only fall into category 1 or 3, there is no middle ground. I thank God I didn’t get the alcoholic gene!

So if scientists and the medical community know there is such a distinct difference between the first group and last 1/3 why can’t they do something. My guess is they can, (gene editing, something else?) but it’s all about money. The drug & food industry is huge, and they are trying to get the second and third group in a constant state of addiction.

I also have a weird theory about foods that are “bad” for you. We eat or drink these thing while telling ourselves (our mind) they are bad, and they will be bad. If we tell ourselves it is good, is it possible it will be good? We often see very elderly people drinking horrible, or eating horrible but living a long life because they believe it is good for them…. Mind over matter.

a reply to: JAGStorm

This study really goes in depth.

Here

The polygenic nature of addiction has implications for the manner in which genetic predictors may eventually be used in treatment and genetic counseling. The loci detected so far, including CHRNA5 Asp398Asn, which has a verified role in smoking, have little predictive value. However, as more genetic risk variants for addiction are discovered and personalized genotyping and sequencing become widespread, there will be increased efforts to use multilocus genetic risk scores to predict vulnerability.20

a reply to: JAGStorm

I'm prolly in the 2. Or maybe even 3. Category.

Do you have daily routines, that if broken upset your mood? Does the coffee need sugar?

I sometimes wonder if being homesick or missing a loved one is a form of addiction too? The sentiment is very similar.

I think moderation, and diversity is a crucial part of healthy eating and live in general... Certainly thinking you're harming yourself will make things much worse....

a reply to: JAGStorm

Years ago while reading about astrological sun signs I found that a Sagittarius ( my sign) is supposed to have an addictive personality so I was conscious of that in the years to come. Later I found out that people could possibly inherit an addictive personality and I had family members that had addictive personalities, so I thought I was doomed. Now after several years I have enough experience to go by, I can say I have only been addicted to cigarettes. I have been able to walk away from every single thing that I wanted to get away from so I guess that means I am the 1/3 middle of the road and might get addicted to some things unless one would need to have had more than one addiction. What category would you say I fall into.?

a reply to: RookQueen

Solid 2.

Cigs are a bad addition to have though.

originally posted by: Terpene
a reply to: JAGStorm

I'm prolly in the 2. Or maybe even 3. Category.

Do you have daily routines, that if broken upset your mood? Does the coffee need sugar?

I sometimes wonder if being homesick or missing a loved one is a form of addiction too? The sentiment is very similar.

I think moderation, and diversity is a crucial part of healthy eating and live in general... Certainly thinking you're harming yourself will make things much worse....

I have a very flexible routine and it takes a lot to upset my mood.
I find my “addictions” are more of the healthy type, like being outdoors, gardening, watching birds, taking photos of the sky…

a reply to: JAGStorm

It's not this cut and dry. Yes, people can have addictive personalities, but if they dont have one they can and will get addicted to things.

You mention powerful pain medication. You took it but stopped when you didnt need anymore and didnt want to keep taking it. Alright, good, ignorance was also bliss for you because you didn't know that every time you took it, it was slowly and gradually changing your cellular make up, the way your brain and nervous system communicates with itself.

You didn't start having symptoms, like an illness, when you stopped taking it and if you did, it was mild because you hadn't been taking it very long so you had no idea that you were "under the weather" simply from not taking the drug anymore.

If you had taken it long enough, even without knowing about how it changes you, you would've been ill after quitting the medication. You would've been sore, depressed, runny nose, yawning, stomach aches with diarrhea being the most common symptoms. These would've continued until you took the medicine or drug again, or until enough time went by for your brain and body to readjust to not having the drug in its system.

The receptors in your brain get sensitized, stop working properly, because they've been tweaked by a chemical for an amount of time to make you feel a certain way. In this case it's relief of pain and a sense of well being, a good mood. With other chemicals it might be energy and concentration, and with others a relief of anxiety or panic, sense of calmness despite stress and fear, maybe tiredness for sleep.

Whatever the chemical does, the opposite happens when you stop taking it, and that goes on a proportional amount of time relative to how long you had been using it. The ones that relieve anxiety also cure twitching and muscle spasms. Quitting those cause twitching, spasms, seizures and extreme panic. The ones for pain relief also constipate you but cause pain and diarrhea when you stop. The ones that give energy cause depression and inability to get out of bed.

One finds themself taking the drug again simply to escape from the torment of whatever symptoms they are having because they stopped taking it to begin with. This will happen to any animal, in this case any human on the planet, from ingesting the particular compound. This goes for cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine, even salt and sugar although they are much milder in comparison.

I would say I' m the second, but others will say I'm definitely in the 3rd category. Once I start something I go for seconds, and thirds, and so on. But I also managed to quit without much problems every time. I did a lot of heavy drinking when I was younger, always Fridays to Mondays. Same with drugs. I used to say that it was just 'recreational'.

Then later in live my doc gave me a prescription for codeine (for my migraines) and I managed to go through the entire box in one month. My doc prescribed me a second box and said that I could only take them when in severe pain and that the box should last at least 6 months. But only 3 weeks later I had emptied it. It was then that it hit me that these pills made me feel 'normal'. I didn't take them for the pain, but to feel relaxed and normal.
Once it hit me I stopped taking them, just like that.

Ever since then I don't drink alcohol, not one sip, ever! I don't take medication unless my life depends on it, I don't do drugs anymore. Nothing that has even the slightest chance of making me dependent on it.
Last time I was in the hospital they gave me a painkiller through the IV and I remember thinking "wow this stuff is good!" I don't remember the name but it was some kind of Opiate derivative. I immediately asked the nurse to take it off, but they kept it on for 5 days. I knew that once the meds were going to be out of my system I would feel 'not normal' for days.

I do still smoke, it's the one thing I can't stop... and believe me I tried just about everything!
And coffee... I guess I'm very much addicted to coffee as well.

Both my parents were severe addicts, alcohol, pills and cigarettes.
I'm convinced that being sensitive to addictions is genetic!

What bothers me most of all is that I have yet to see one doctor who takes this issue serious. Whenever I tell them my reasons for not wanting any medication they laugh it away and say that it take more then a couple of pills to become addicted.

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

There are two types of addictions, mental and physical. Mental addiction can start with one pill, physical addiction takes a prolonged consume to make itself apparent.
Medics do not consider the mental predisposition to addiction, when brushing off your concerns...

To me it sounds more like a moderation issue, as you have no problem quiting...

a reply to: Terpene

yes, there is definitely a big difference between mental and physical addiction, but you shouldn't underestimate the first one. It's the main reason why people fall back into an addiction after they quit for months.

I have felt 'not normal' for years! (with lack of a better way of explaining it). The only solution they had to offer me was: pills. Never took anything, and now I finally feel 'normal'

a reply to: JAGStorm

I'm probably a 2 or a 3 but I used to fit the 1 category until teenage years, I developed some OCD traits. It all went tits up from there!

Epigenetics might interest you, it's the idea that genetics can play a role and that trauma can be inherited. It made a lot of sense to my mind as I've found the nature/nurture ideology to be incomplete.

In my experience the mind is more powerful than all the influences, it's possible to think your way out of negative traits and responses.

I also have a weird theory about foods that are “bad” for you. We eat or drink these thing while telling ourselves (our mind) they are bad, and they will be bad. If we tell ourselves it is good, is it possible it will be good? We often see very elderly people drinking horrible, or eating horrible but living a long life because they believe it is good for them…. Mind over matter.

I unfortunately didn't find this in my youth, school taught me that energy is energy, it's not so much the input that's the issue but the input/output. The individual is the issue not the food...

I was wrong, fake sugars and other highly refined crap triggered migraines in my youth, still does. Those experiences led me to thinking pot is 'good' because it stops the migraines happening. Cannabis and a developing brain definitely wasn't right.

Allergic and adverse reactions come to mind too, the reactions drift from non-existent to severe in some people depending on how their body is doing. Idk, maybe the mind plays a role there too?

a reply to: Thrumbo

You mention powerful pain medication. You took it but stopped when you didnt need anymore and didnt want to keep taking it. Alright, good, ignorance was also bliss for you because you didn't know that every time you took it, it was slowly and gradually changing your cellular make up, the way your brain and nervous system communicates with itself.

Here is where I think there is a lot of misunderstanding.
I absolutely do know how pain medications work. I understand tolerances, brain changes, and I understand why so many do become addicted. My career was directly related to this topic for almost a decade.

I also understand that “pull” is so much strong for some than others. That research I linked goes into it.
They call it “vulnerability”. Some people have more propensity to become addicted. There are probably different timelines if you will. A 1 person might take six months to get addicted where a 3 person would only take a few weeks. Why?

What makes those people different? Why can some people smoke casually, but other are chain smokers?
How can some people quit smoking where it is almost impossible for others.
Same for food, same for sex, same for pills?

My 1,2,3 example was probably too brief, to say they could NEVER get addicted is wrong. I was using it in terms of normal circumstances. If someone kidnaps a person and feeds them drugs or pain pills for months on end, of course they will become addicted.

a reply to: RAY1990

Allergic and adverse reactions come to mind too, the reactions drift from non-existent to severe in some people depending on how their body is doing. Idk, maybe the mind plays a role there too?

I think MSG is a good way to prove this.
They have actually done studies and so many people think they are allergic, or sensitive to MSG but they really aren’t. I guess the power of suggestion!
MSG is in so many foods but it is named so many things and people don’t even realize it.
Not to say that some people aren’t really sensitive!

Nicotine for me was a bitch and a half to quit, started as a kid on the dip and chew, later on cigarettes, and didn't quit till my early 50s. But finally did and it was the best thing for me. Had my early years with drugs and alcohol, but once a fell in lust and later love it was mostly a non-issue. I have some wild weekends here and there.

Now I'm addicted to beef jerky and have been for a while, but it has become so expensive

originally posted by: putnam6
Nicotine for me was a bitch and a half to quit, started as a kid on the dip and chew, later on cigarettes, and didn't quit till my early 50s. But finally did and it was the best thing for me. Had my early years with drugs and alcohol, but once a fell in lust and later love it was mostly a non-issue. I have some wild weekends here and there.

Now I'm addicted to beef jerky and have been for a while, but it has become so expensive

That is so amazing that you quit smoking. I had to watch my mom die slowly and painfully of lung cancer.
She smoked up until 3 days of her death. She was so addicted that she needed the patches to tie her over when she was too physically weak to smoke.

As for the beef jerky, have you thought of making your own. It’s pretty easy and actually tastes amazing. Get a good dehydrator and some recipes..

a reply to: JAGStorm

Like the saying about minds and attitudes I imagine it works both ways.

They have actually done studies and so many people think they are allergic, or sensitive to MSG but they really aren’t. I guess the power of suggestion!

Gluten!

I guess it's easier to use explanations than to do the research or actually go to the doctor's?

Palm oil and some sweeteners are what I watch out for as they're migraine triggers, that said anything can be a migraine trigger...
I get migraines if I don't treat the body well too, if general health and diet aren't 'good' I'm sure sensitivity issues can arise.

Diet is where more people have addictive personalities than anywhere else imho. Things can get lively!