The 'addictive personality' refers to the traits created in the addict during the course of the addictive cycle. “This personality does not exist prior to the illness of addiction, nor does it represent a predisposition to addiction; rather, it emerges from the addictive process.” (n1) The addict's identity is altered to include a dual personality: “the Self and the Addict.” The self (the pre-addiction personality) becomes increasingly submitted to the Addict, who grows in power and control. Some of the characteristics of this condition include: changing objects of addiction as a coping mechanism, using “addictive logic,” and finally developing of an “addictive delusion system.” (n2)
The importance of this concept is in describing the actual emotional confusion that takes place in the person battling addiction. The dependent relationship (formed with a substances, persons, or events) increasingly defines and becomes the person's identity. The addictive cycle leads to the emergence of the addictive personality; the addictive personality, in turn, perpetuates the addictive cycle. To affect recovery, the addictive personality must be addressed: “It's the addictive relationship inside oneself that the recovering person will need to acknowledge and break, not just the relationship with an object.” (n3)
Particular Applications to Methamphetamine Abuse
Methamphetamine addicts fall into this general pattern, but methamphetamine abuse includes aspects that should receive particular attention. First, methamphetamines by nature reinforce 'the illusion of control' even while precipitating the pain that give 'internal clues' for acting out. (n4) The 'high' experienced in methamphetamine abuse is a “brief, intense sensation, or rush” (when smoked or injected) or even a “long-lasting high ..., which reportedly can continue for as long as half a day” (when ingested or snorted) – both a “result from the release of very high levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine into areas of the brain that regulate feelings of pleasure.” (n5)
This euphoria is, indeed, a very powerful illusion that can mask the shame and pain of the addiction, and methaphetamines are even more tempting due to their longer lasting euphoria:
The euphoric effects produced by methamphetamine, cocaine, and various designer amphetamines are similar and may be difficult to clinically differentiate. A distinguishing clinical feature is the longer pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic half-life of methamphetamine, which may be as much as 10 times longer than the half-life of cocaine. (n6)Yet this is just where methamphetamines pose the greatest risk for the emergence of the addictive personality. Methamphetamine abuse has an increased potential for producing shame beyond even those normal aspects that Nakken lists. Shame and embarrassment stemming from physical side effects (e.g., extreme tooth decay, burns and open sores, etc.), uncontrolled actions (e.g., sexual activity, violence and abuse, etc.), and financial struggles (e.g., loss of employment, loss of prestige, etc.) are common among methamphetamine abusers. (n7) The increased presence of shame propels the addict further into the addictive cycle. This can be even better understood by looking more closely at the cycle and how the methamphetamine addict passes through it.
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1 Craig Nakken, The Addictive Personality,
2d ed. Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1996: 25.
2 Ibid., 24-36.
3 Ibid., 26.
4 Ibid., 32-33.
5 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA),
“Methamphetamine Abuse and Addiction,” Research Report Series.
NIH Publication Number 98-4210. April 1998: 4. One former user
described this euphoria to me as feeling “10 feet tall and
bullet-proof.”
6 Robert Derlert, et al. "Toxicity, Methamphetamine." available at: http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic859.htm . Accessed May 18, 2005. (Robert Derlert serves as Chief of Emergency Medicine, Professor, Departments of Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine, University of California (Davis) Medical Center.) Compare this to Nakken's description of "How It Begins" (op cit., 20-21) and the importance of the initial high in forming the addiction.
7 Cf. Nakken, 28-29. For more on these common
effects of methamphetamine abuse, see the discussion on “Treatments”
below. See also propaganda for the prevention of abuse (e.g., “Meth
Teeth” available from the Washington State Alcohol/Drug
Clearinghouse, on the internet at: www.justice.gov/usao/ias/victim.../Meth%20Teeth%20Brochure.pdf
or “Faces of Meth” available at:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/photos/gallery.ssf?cgi-bin/view_gallery.cgi/olive/view_gallery.ata?g_id=2927 or http://ehealth4teens.org/info/meth.php#two).
