PREVIOUS: Alcoholism #2b

IMAGE ⬆️ : Pain directly linked to Emotional States 

SITE: “Heal suffering w/ Self-acceptance“ (+ Negative beliefs)

POOR MENTL HEALTH plays an important role in all forms of substance abuse, which often overlap with psychiatric disorders, because addictive substances change the way the brain works, impacting a person’s mood, thoughts & actions. Psychological evaluation of a potential patient includes
Personal history issues :  age when they first started using alcohol, family history of substance use/abuse, & all traumatic experiences, Also – housing, financial & marital status, education & employment, physical & mental health (theirs & their family), & legal problems..

RESEARCH: The central nervous system (CNS) processes – which integrate emotional behavior – are altered in people at high risk for alcoholism, with 3 markers :
1) Proportion: a characteristic balance of positive to negative emotions
2) Cortisol: emotion-related changes in this stress hormone
3) The Startle Eyeblink: a measure of emotion-related change in CNS activation

CHARACTERISTICS that underpin active addictions
🏴 NOTE: NO ONE has ALL of these! Look for several that fit your ‘favorite’ addict so you’re to confused. If you identify with any, work on correcting & healing.

There isn’t a single personality type that universally identifies all addicts . Certain traits may be more common : a family history of alcoholism, high stress levels, impulsivity, low self-esteem, & sensation-seeking.

1. GENERAL
👤 Afraid of intimacy – operate behind armor that keeps the world out 
👤 Low frustration tolerance – more upset when unhappy for a long time, or when annoying things don’t work out quickly – reacting more impulsively than most
👤 Low self-worth – isolated & trouble expressing their deepest feelings
👤 More sensitive, meaning a “low rejection threshold”, feeling more apart or left out. But often tend to be especially creative & gifted.
EXP : Most American Nobel Prize winners in Literature suffered from alcoholism.

2. MENTAL
• Cognitive distorted. Have many unrealistic or completely erroneous beliefs. Includes ‘all-or-nothing’, ‘black-or-white’ thinking…..
• Cynical. Bitter, an overall very negative assessment of people & life
• Comparing: Defending habits by pointing to someone else who allegedly drinks more or behaves worse

• External Blaming: Attributing drinking behavior to stress, a partner, a bad day at work, or external pressures rather than personal choice.
• Justification : Constantly creating conditions or “rewards” that logically require a drink (“I earned this after the week I had”).
• Unforgiving. Unable / unwilling to release of all the bad things done to them, & the pain it caused. Can’t seem to cope with people, place, things – as they are

 3. EMOTIONAL
• Angry. Volatile E-motions, explosive temper, often acts out in violent ways
• Anxious. A general feeling of anxiety, without knowing where it comes from or what’s causing it
• Ashamed. Intensely ashamed of themself, their family, their circumstance, their inability to ‘fix’ a loved one…..
• Depressed. This can be physical /hereditary and/OR from decades of abandonment & abuse. Either way its’s long-term & debilitating
• Desperate. Feel like their would is falling apart. Don’t know what to do

•  Fearful / Terrified. Worry a lot. Anxious, agitated…. always expect only the worst
• Guilty. Continual, overwhelming self-blame for real or imagine harm they did to someone, either by a damaging action, or by neglecting to do something
• Hyper-sensitive. Take everything personally that happens to them or even around them, as if they’re the center of everyone else’s world
• Insensitive. Can’t sympathize with another’s hardship, or to empathize with someone’s emotional distress

• Hopeless. Completely convinced there’s NO possibility for their life to get better (“learned helplessness”), they have no options, no one to help
• Joyless. Nothing is fun, relaxing, stress-less.
• Lonely. Feel alone, can’t ask for help because ‘no one cares’

• Paranoid. Assume everyone secretly (or blatantly) intends to hurt them. Can’t trust anyone. NO one’s safe
• Resentful – of oh-so many people… Carry a long list of grudges towards anyone who’s disappointed or hurt them in life

• Sad. Deep sorrow because of too many losses, often hidden from oneself, or unexpressed.
• Un-comforted. Nothing is soothing, pleasant, stress-free
• Uncomfortable in their skin. Don’t know ‘who I am”, or ‘how’ to sit, stand, walk… Restless, irritable, discontent. Life is a painful, unpleasant journey
• Unlovable – Unable to love themself or to receive love from others.

NEXT: Personality = Verbal, Psychological