Childhood Experiences May Create Addictive Personality - Research Paper Example

Marina Natovich J. Hurley Writing 101 16 November Childhood Experiences May Create Addictive Personality Childhood experience, good or bad, greatly affects the behaviour of a person. The experience of a person on his or her early years shapes the person’s character. It is in this crucial stage of one’s life that his or her mental and emotional well-being is vulnerable to changes. In the same manner that the physical features of a person are still nurturing at this stage, his or her personality is also developing. While genetic composition of a person dictates his or her physical growth, the quality of the nourishment that the body receives also affects its growth. Similarly, the person’s environment on his or her childhood largely affects the formation of his or her personality. What the child sees in the environment and how this environment treats him or her determine the child’s personality. Childhood experience is considered as the foundation of one’s personality. The gravity of the effect of childhood experience on the child’s personality is not immediately perceptible. It is generally in the adulthood that the totality of the person’s personality manifests. Positive childhood experiences may give a person good behaviour and attitude. On the other hand, negative childhood experiences may create a personality disorder on the person. Between the two, the latter receives more attention from the public because it does not conform to the norm of the society. It is of utmost concern to the experts how a bad childhood experience creates a personality disorder. A very common example of this is the tendency of a person to exhibit an addictive personality and is often associated with childhood experience. Many studies have shown that indeed childhood experiences may create addictive personality. Addiction is defined as the dependency of a person on object, such as drugs and alcohol, or on action like gambling and having sex (Juzwiak 4). Moreover, a person who is prone to be easily addicted is said to have an addictive personality. Understanding addictive personality is a complex task that requires a much deeper analysis on the person’s social behaviour and intellectual well-being. It is believed that one way to understand addictive personality is to study its cause. That is to study the history of the person with addictive personality. Many experts believe that an addictive personality is largely caused by the person’s childhood experience. For instance, the results of the recent study performed by the University of Cambridge shows that people with drug dependence have more troubled childhoods compared to healthy peers in the community (“Traumatic childhood may increase the risk of drug addiction”). A number of people with drug dependence were examined and later on found out to have bad childhood experiences (“Traumatic”). As Dr Ersche, of the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute (BCNI) of the University puts it, “It has long been known that abusive experiences during childhood have long-lasting effects on behaviour in adulthood and this was confirmed by our results. . . we also found a direct relationship between traumatic childhoods and their personalities” (“Traumatic”). Therefore, it is very evident that childhood experiences may undeniably cause addictive personality. To further support the thesis, the factors affecting one’s childhood experiences will be discussed and will be related to a person’s addictive personality. Basically, these are the environment, upbringing and child abuse. Each different factor affects the personality of a person in distinct ways. Firstly, an important part of a person’s childhood experience is the environment. It is the environment that imparts the child what is morally and socially acceptable. It is a crucial component in the person’s formation of personality. The social and moral standards of a person guide his or her actions. The effect of the environment is otherwise termed as social pressures. Bridgers (11) breaks down social pressures into three categories such as the learned behaviour, socially acceptable behaviours and peer pressure. Children are more likely to be influenced by these social pressures as they are still in the stage of developing their personality (studies). A learned behaviour is a behaviour that a person unconsciously acquires from the people he or she trusts and looks up to. For example, when a child sees his or her father gets drunk whenever in stress, the child tends to believe that a way to relieve stress is to get drunk. For many years, the child grows up with that belief so when he or she reaches that stage in his or her life, he or she is more likely to resort to getting drunk to relieve stress. This behavioural pattern becomes an addiction in a way that the person thinks that he or she needs to drink alcohol when experiencing stress. This is one clear illustration of how childhood experience may cause addictive personality. Socially acceptable behaviour is learned through the social environment of the child. For a community where a majority of its residents is engaged in gambling, violence and drug use, the child is most likely to practice these things too. The child is also to accept these practices as socially acceptable behaviours because he or she will think that these are the practices of the rest of the people outside his or her community. By that, the person is more likely to form a habit of gambling, violence and drug use which leads to addiction. In addition, peer pressure is another factor leading to an addictive personality. At an early age, the pressure not to be left out motivates child to engage in practices that are addictive like simple gambling. As a result, when the child grows up, he or she finds it difficult to depart or resist temptations of addictive things. Apparently, it is much easier to learn things than to unlearn them. As the Mithya Institute for Learning compares unlearning to the act of stripping the existing paint of a wall so that new paint sticks, wherein stripping is 70% of the job and repainting is 30% (“What is learning”). Another link between childhood experiences and addictive behaviour is a traumatic childhood. In an experiment results published in American Journal of Psychiatry, it revealed that there is a direct correlation between the CSF CRF levels and history of childhood trauma in men with personality disorders (Lee, Geracioti, Kasckow, and Coccaro). CSF Corticotropin-releasing factor is the principal known central nervous system mediator of the stress response (Newport, Heim, Owens, Ritchie, Ramsey, Bonsall, Miller, and Nemeroff). People with physical disorder have elevated CSF CRF concentrations (Newport et al.). Children with traumatic childhood are most likely to be addicted to alcohol, drugs and other addictive substance. The high these substances give enables the person forget his or her bad childhood experiences. As Nakken explains it, “The trance allows addicts to detach from the pain, guilt and shame they feel, making it extremely attractive. The addict becomes increasingly skilful at living at the trance and using it to cover painful feelings. In the process, he or she gets a sense of power and control but also becomes dependent on the trance, which is part of the progression of the addictive process.” (Nakken 4). This makes the victim of bad childhood experiences acquires addictive personality. This involves psychological problems that the childhood experiences have created on the person. Negative childhood experiences, physical abuse or emotional abuse, do not only leave physical and emotional scar on the person but also psychological scar. Consequently, the psychological impact does affect the person’s behaviour and intellectual health causing personality disorder. The upbringing of the child also contributes to the person acquiring addictive personality. The type of discipline the parents give to their children can also impact the personality of the children in a negative way. For a case in point, when the parents are too strict on their disciplinary measures on their children, the children tend to show rebellious traits in their adulthood. Once again, this phenomenon can be equated to addictive personality when the person gets constant exposure to addictive things and actions. In addition, people always want to be accepted in the society and when they get deprived from this on their childhood, the tendency is to be hungry on being accepted. It then leads to the person engaging in addictive things like alcohol and drugs where the person usually temporarily gets acceptance from his or her peers. It is the person’s way of satisfying the aspect of his or her life that he or she feels lacking. Other childhood experiences that may cause addictive personality on the person are bad relationships within family members and a broken family. These things have a direct and long term psychological impact on the child as he or she witnesses it every day. The things the child frequently witnesses contribute a large part on the development of his or her personality. The propositions show that the experience of a person on his or her early years is vital in the formation of his or her personality. Part of this personality may immediately be evident on the person’s childhood through simple things but it is in the adulthood that the totality of this personality usually manifests. It is in the adulthood that the person gets more freedom on making decisions which makes his or her personality disorder becomes more evident on the action he or she takes. It is true that there are substances that are addicting but addiction is also because of the psychological and intellectual composition of the person. As Mason (“Addictive”) puts it, “A major misconception involving addiction is the idea that certain substances are, all by themselves, addicting”. The personality of the person serves either as a defence or a catalyst on him or her being addicted to things or actions. Personality plays a significant role on the choices the person makes. This is the reason that the therapy for addiction goes into the psychological and social aspect of the person. It repairs the personality disorder of the person through his or her social outlook and psychological condition. It goes beyond the physical aspect of addiction or the addictive substance and its effect human body. Lastly, the evidences presented support the thesis of this paper. It has been established that childhood experiences may indeed create addictive personality. Specifically, negative childhood experiences become catalyst on the progress of addiction to a person. Solving the problem of addiction should start on promoting an environment that is conducive to giving positive childhood experiences. As a result, cases of people with addictive personality will be reduced. Works Cited Bridgers, Jay. “Everything You Need to Know About Having an Addictive Personality.” New York: Rosen, 1998. Print. Juzwiak, Rich. “Addictive Personality.” New York: Rosen, 2009. Print. Lee, Royce, Geracioti, Thomas, Kasckow, John, and Coccaro, Emil. “Childhood Trauma and Personality Disorder: Positive Correlation With Adult CSF Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Cocentrations. ” Am J Psychiatry 2005; 162:995-997. 1 May 2005. Web. 16 November 2012. Nakken, Craig. “The Addictive Personality: Understanding the Addictive Process and Compulsive Behavior.” Minnesota: Hazelden, 1996. Print. Nelson, Bruce. “The Addictive Personality: Common Traits Are Found.” The New York Times. 18 January 1983. Web. 16 November 2012. Newport, D., Heim, C., Owens, M., Ritchie, J., Ramsey, C., Bonsall, R., Miller, A., and Nemeroff, C. “Cerebrospinal fluid corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and vasopressin concentrations predict pituitary response in the CRF stimulation test: a multiple regression analysis.” PubMed.gov.Neuropsychopharmacology. 2006 Dec;31(12):2776-82. Epub. 23 August 2006. Web. 16 November 2012. Stephen, Mason. “The Addictive Personality: If drugs are addictive, how come Im not addicted?” Psychology Today.14 March 2009. Web. 16 November 2012. “Traumatic childhood may increase the risk of drug addiction.” University of Cambridge Website. N.p., 31 August 2012. Web. 16 November 2012. “What is unlearning?” The Mythia Institue for Learning Website. N.p., 1999. Web. 16 November 2012. Read More