{"id":8595,"date":"2023-03-30T17:43:07","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T16:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=8595"},"modified":"2023-03-31T15:02:43","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T14:02:43","slug":"health-wellbeing-do-i-have-an-addictive-personality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=8595","title":{"rendered":"HEALTH & WELLBEING: Do I have an \u2018addictive personality\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To my mind, the short answer to the question posed in the title of this post is a short and resounding yes<\/em>! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, apparently much of the science says otherwise: \u2018Fundamentally, the idea of a general addictive personality is a myth. Research finds no universal character traits that are common to all <\/em>addicted people.\u2019 [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, I\u2019ve suddenly collapsed into a near vegetative state of depression, over the last few months. Some of the reasons are perennial (lack of money), others more singular (least said, soonest mended). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amidst all of this, I\u2019ve relapsed into few behaviours (I\u2019m sounding like an amateur naturist, er\u2026 naturalist, now) that seem, outwardly, very aulde. One of the common denominators to all these behaviours, is addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And some of the things that characterise the kind of addiction I\u2019m talking about: firstly they compel one to act in ways one knows are foolish and high risk, and two, there\u2019s a kind of hollow joylessness to whatever the indulgence might me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that latter point, it has to be said that things aren\u2019t really as cut and dried as that idea might imply. Pleasure can be and is<\/em> taken in the addictive behaviours. But there\u2019s an underlying sense, sometimes even when unquestionably enjoying the addictive behaviour, that one is acting foolishly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why should it be this way? And what makes certain things so compelling that they hijack one\u2019s better judgement? This post isn\u2019t an attempt to really answer such questions. In truth it\u2019s more the sudden realisation that I\u2019ve got some possible addiction \u2018issues\u2019 I need to acknowledge and work on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Looking at all the textual images in this post, which I pulled from the Google image search results for \u2018addictive personality\u2019, they almost all apply. Perhaps unsurprisingly? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d say that for me there are two or three chief drivers when it comes to most of my addictions: pleasure, relaxation and escape. And the leaning into these behaviours is exacerbated in times of high stress – such as presently – by the desire to reduce or mitigate it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like to use my blog as a somewhat candid journal. But it\u2019s neither an outright confessional, nor the best place to air dirty laundry that might best be addressed professionally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this last topic, however, I feel I\u2019m being let down in a pretty big way, by the alphabet soup of acronym-heavy mental-health organisations I\u2019ve been alerted to. It\u2019s all pillar to post Groundhog Day assessments, and nary any actual support!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Whisky\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Having inferred above that here is not<\/em> the place to go into the gory details of specific addictions, I will use one relatively innocuous seeming but actually very insidious example, namely spending. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My re-formulation of Descartes famous dictum, for our times, runs thus \u2018I spend therefore I am\u2019. One of histories\u2019 greatest dictators, the unholy axis of capitalism and materialism, has marched into and annexed almost every conceivable aspect of modern life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I will often attempt to spend my way out of obscurity and depression with anything from a Gregg\u2019s pizza slice to a book, CD, clothes or shoes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n