What I believe to be true about addictive/compulsive behavior

Robert Michel

An addictive person is one who believes that they are not whole, and that by adding an “X Factor,” they will be whole. The “X Factor” can be a substance, such as drugs or alcohol, or it can be an experience, such as gambling or sex. What the addictive person in each case has in common is the feeling that they are not capable of functioning the way they desire without the stimulus of the “X Factor”.

Often we associate addiction with personality. According to the Science of Mind textbook, factors to be considered in the development of personality are listed here:

·         Heredity
·         Race-suggestion
·         Environment
·         Child training
·         Education
·         Auto-suggestion
·         Anything impinging on conscience

Heredity may promote physical addiction and/or addictive behavior. For example, some ethnic groups, such as Native Americans, have not developed a resistance to alcohol and may become addicted more easily than other groups. Other ethnic groups may actively promote addictive behavior, like smoking cigarettes in Eastern Europe.

Race suggestion feeds an addictive mentality by promulgating the sex appeal of addictive behavior, and this may be Madison Avenue playing on our psyches. When our society continuously reinforces the perceived attractiveness of smoking or drinking, it tends to absorb into the collective consciousness and find its way into our personalities.

Environment also can support addictive behavior and personalities. When a person is born into a family already addicted to the “X Factor,” it becomes normal that the new family member is also an “X Factor” addict. The family is not the only source of an environmental influence; kid’s cohorts growing up have a similar effect to family: “If you are from our neighborhood, you do the “X Factor” with us – or you are an outsider.”

Child training feeds addictive personalities when the training is rife with “X Factor” influences. Kids are fed wine at the dinner table in some families and this normalizes getting drunk. Kids see drinking on TV or in the movies and they get trained in the idea that it is OK and normal to drink. The same thing goes for gambling, sex, and drugs: many kids get trained in these “X Factors” from their parents, TV, movies, and their cohorts.

Education shapes personalities, and lack of education shapes personalities too. If a person lacks the basic education to survive in the job market, they easily fall prey to “X Factor” intoxication. Whether it is substances or compulsive behaviors, lack of education can be tied directly to addictive behavior.

Other factors shaping personality include auto-suggestion and “anything impinging on conscience” forms the category of “anything else that could make a person addictive.” Clearly we do not know the reasons why every person ends up dependent upon addictive substances or compulsive destructive behaviors, so we write it off as auto-suggestion (they thought their way into it) or something impinged on their conscience.

These pathways to addictive personalities are the same that form non-addictive personalities, just turned in a skewed direction. The addict’s need for the “X Factor” may stem from any of the listed personality inputs, or combinations of these inputs, combined with low self-esteem.  By addressing the roots of the addictive personality, they can be treated, and addiction can be healed.