Personality Features of a Drug Dependent Person
Addiction to a psychoactive substance is the global medical and social problem of the modern society. Ranging by different estimates, 13% population of the world use drugs and have some addiction.
Syndrome of addiction starts in junior and teen age. Personal prediposition includes emotional immaturity, low level of self-control, inadequate self-esteem, low stress tolerance, weak adaptation abilities, lack of constructive interaction with others, low level of aspiration. Immature, infantile person can become a subject to addiction most of all. Most significant attribute is emotional-volitional immaturity, being expressed through the lack of independence, increased suggestibility, carelessness, immature feeling of duty and responsibility. Such persons can't meet the requirements of the society.
The personality of an addicted person starts changing under the influence of drugs too. Everyone can loose individual characteristics, no matter what drugs are used by them. The psychopathic defect with personality degradation and pronounced moral and ethical decline starts forming. It is characterized by increased excitability, increased affective disorder being expressed by dysphoric or apathetic-abulia depression, affective lability. There is also a moral and ethical decline and persistent intellectual-mnestic disorders.
Psychological aspects of addictions.
Addiction is severe, chronic stage of substance-use disorder, in which there is a substantial loss of self-control, as indicated by compulsive drug taking despite the desire to stop taking the drug". Widely endorsed perspectives on addiction that follow the disease-model have held that addictive behavior is a compulsion – beyond one's conscious control and without regard for one's rational judgment – to indulge in particular behaviors or in the consumption of certain drugs. It limits any personal development, it causes to somathical and pshychiatric diseases. It is expressed as escape-from-reality. It creates a lot of new problems. The person cannot control his behavior, emotions, thoughts. The addiction starts destroying his life.
Behavioural alterations induced by drug-taking
The main forms of addictive behavior are chemical addiction (drug, alcohol, medicine, nicotine, toxic, food) and non-chemical (gaming, computer, religious, sexual, etc.).
The main symptoms of any form of addiction are constant thoughts about a certain type of activity, inability to enjoy other aspects of life, control and stop your behavior, anxiety when this behavior is stopped, using addiction to avoid responsibility and real actions, intense mood swings, etc.
Among all forms of addiction, the most common and socially acceptable forms are nicotine, food and computer addiction. However, they also contribute to the formation of destructive patterns of behavior, a decrease in personal effectiveness and contribute the development of various diseases. In our country there is a decrease in the number of smoking people and the formation of negative attitude to smoking in the public consciousness, especially among young people. One should note that more than 70% of students of the medical university have a negative attitude to smoking and almost all students consider smoking unacceptable among women and medical workers. Besides, the percentage of smoking senior students is significantly reduced due to the psychological support at the university's anti-smoking center and the increase of the medical knowledge volume. So, according to a survey conducted in May 2018, the percentage of smoking students studing at the senior courses was 23%, and in younger ones - 39%, indicating a rather high efficiency of work for promotion a healthy lifestyle.
However, this problem has not yet been resolved completely. According to some younger people's opinion, smoking is a marker of adulthood. Many adults suggest that this habit is a factor contributing to increased efficiency, decreased appetite, improved communication, etc. However, the harm caused by smoking to human health is much more dangerous than these conditional benefits. Food and computer addiction gradually destroys psycho-emotional condition of a person, takes him away from solving real life problems and contributes to the development of various somatic and mental disorders.
There are some factors contributing to development of addiction. There are some biological factors, associated with inheritance of organic damage to the brain, reduced tolerance to various psychoactive substances, etc. It is also necessary to take into account the socio-psychological factors including the instability of the socio-economic situation in society, erosion of moral guidelines, violation of family relations, destructive styles of education, etc.
Psychologists believe that main factors are disorders of mental regulation of the mind-body sphere, arising in early childhood, when a child interacts with his mother. The absence or deficit of maternal love and adequate child care in the first year of life leads to a disruption in the formation of mental structures responsible for the development of emotional and body competence. Extreme violation is alexithymia, being expressed in disorientation in a person's emotional-bodily state and difficulty in expressing person's own feelings. Similar disorders may occur later in life due to psychical trauma, violation of education in the family… Psychological factors include a violation of the «concept of himself», witch based on adequate self-esteem, on high level subjective life control, constructive strategy of overcoming by difficult life's situations, positive thinking, etc. The lack of formation of these competencies can contribute to the development of personal inefficiency and a tendency to addictive behavior in the event of various life problems.
The treatment of addictions is a very difficult task, even if they have no serious biological basis. The initial stage of recovery should be awareness and acceptance of one's pathological condition. In the future, along with medical treatment, it is necessary to develop personal qualities gradually that contribute to the restoration of mental self-regulation and a constructive solution to existing psychological problems. With pronounced long-term addictions, this can be achieved by persistent long-term psychotherapeutic and drug treatment, at the initial stages and mild manifestations, familiarization with psycho-educational and medical information, as well as attending individual and group psycho-correctional courses. The most important condition for recovery is the patient's motivation for treatment.
Syndrome of addiction starts in junior and teen age. Personal prediposition includes emotional immaturity, low level of self-control, inadequate self-esteem, low stress tolerance, weak adaptation abilities, lack of constructive interaction with others, low level of aspiration. Immature, infantile person can become a subject to addiction most of all. Most significant attribute is emotional-volitional immaturity, being expressed through the lack of independence, increased suggestibility, carelessness, immature feeling of duty and responsibility. Such persons can't meet the requirements of the society.
The personality of an addicted person starts changing under the influence of drugs too. Everyone can loose individual characteristics, no matter what drugs are used by them. The psychopathic defect with personality degradation and pronounced moral and ethical decline starts forming. It is characterized by increased excitability, increased affective disorder being expressed by dysphoric or apathetic-abulia depression, affective lability. There is also a moral and ethical decline and persistent intellectual-mnestic disorders.
Psychological aspects of addictions.
Addiction is severe, chronic stage of substance-use disorder, in which there is a substantial loss of self-control, as indicated by compulsive drug taking despite the desire to stop taking the drug". Widely endorsed perspectives on addiction that follow the disease-model have held that addictive behavior is a compulsion – beyond one's conscious control and without regard for one's rational judgment – to indulge in particular behaviors or in the consumption of certain drugs. It limits any personal development, it causes to somathical and pshychiatric diseases. It is expressed as escape-from-reality. It creates a lot of new problems. The person cannot control his behavior, emotions, thoughts. The addiction starts destroying his life.
Behavioural alterations induced by drug-taking
- Social behavior deficit: especially characterized by the effort to get the drug, justifying its inertia by pseudo-philosophical and anti-social reasoning. It is frequently common in opioid user;
- intellective-operational deficit: attention, thinking, memory problems;
- deficit of emotional comfort. It is rather interesting that only the drug remains interesting for him. This state reminds affective indifference of hebephrenic person and it also contributes the development of depressive states, especially during the time of refusing of drugs, it leads to to relapses (re-appearance of addictive behavior, dependency).
The main forms of addictive behavior are chemical addiction (drug, alcohol, medicine, nicotine, toxic, food) and non-chemical (gaming, computer, religious, sexual, etc.).
The main symptoms of any form of addiction are constant thoughts about a certain type of activity, inability to enjoy other aspects of life, control and stop your behavior, anxiety when this behavior is stopped, using addiction to avoid responsibility and real actions, intense mood swings, etc.
Among all forms of addiction, the most common and socially acceptable forms are nicotine, food and computer addiction. However, they also contribute to the formation of destructive patterns of behavior, a decrease in personal effectiveness and contribute the development of various diseases. In our country there is a decrease in the number of smoking people and the formation of negative attitude to smoking in the public consciousness, especially among young people. One should note that more than 70% of students of the medical university have a negative attitude to smoking and almost all students consider smoking unacceptable among women and medical workers. Besides, the percentage of smoking senior students is significantly reduced due to the psychological support at the university's anti-smoking center and the increase of the medical knowledge volume. So, according to a survey conducted in May 2018, the percentage of smoking students studing at the senior courses was 23%, and in younger ones - 39%, indicating a rather high efficiency of work for promotion a healthy lifestyle.
However, this problem has not yet been resolved completely. According to some younger people's opinion, smoking is a marker of adulthood. Many adults suggest that this habit is a factor contributing to increased efficiency, decreased appetite, improved communication, etc. However, the harm caused by smoking to human health is much more dangerous than these conditional benefits. Food and computer addiction gradually destroys psycho-emotional condition of a person, takes him away from solving real life problems and contributes to the development of various somatic and mental disorders.
There are some factors contributing to development of addiction. There are some biological factors, associated with inheritance of organic damage to the brain, reduced tolerance to various psychoactive substances, etc. It is also necessary to take into account the socio-psychological factors including the instability of the socio-economic situation in society, erosion of moral guidelines, violation of family relations, destructive styles of education, etc.
Psychologists believe that main factors are disorders of mental regulation of the mind-body sphere, arising in early childhood, when a child interacts with his mother. The absence or deficit of maternal love and adequate child care in the first year of life leads to a disruption in the formation of mental structures responsible for the development of emotional and body competence. Extreme violation is alexithymia, being expressed in disorientation in a person's emotional-bodily state and difficulty in expressing person's own feelings. Similar disorders may occur later in life due to psychical trauma, violation of education in the family… Psychological factors include a violation of the «concept of himself», witch based on adequate self-esteem, on high level subjective life control, constructive strategy of overcoming by difficult life's situations, positive thinking, etc. The lack of formation of these competencies can contribute to the development of personal inefficiency and a tendency to addictive behavior in the event of various life problems.
The treatment of addictions is a very difficult task, even if they have no serious biological basis. The initial stage of recovery should be awareness and acceptance of one's pathological condition. In the future, along with medical treatment, it is necessary to develop personal qualities gradually that contribute to the restoration of mental self-regulation and a constructive solution to existing psychological problems. With pronounced long-term addictions, this can be achieved by persistent long-term psychotherapeutic and drug treatment, at the initial stages and mild manifestations, familiarization with psycho-educational and medical information, as well as attending individual and group psycho-correctional courses. The most important condition for recovery is the patient's motivation for treatment.