Alcoholic Personality

Vital Information as to the Alcoholic Personality

 

When talking about the “alcoholic personality”, this relates to character traits commonly found in people that eventually become alcoholics.  Tremendous information has been gathered over the years by medical doctors, researchers, scientists, and psychologists trying to understand why some people become alcoholics and others do not.  The discoveries made are amazing, answering many age-old questions about alcohol abuse.

For instance, it has been discovered that instead of being a predictor of someone abusing alcohol, the personality or traits are the result.  The person that drinks to the point of being an alcoholic will not display the alcoholic personality until years after the drinking began.  In other words, the shared traits people have looked for specific to why people start drinking we have learned that these shared traits are what alcoholics share after the abuse has begun.

While it is true alcoholics often come from poverty, abusive homes, or low self-esteem but these are not the reasons a person drinks.  However, because of environmental factors such as these, combined with other factors such as biological, perhaps a parent who was or is an alcoholic, and psychological, meaning mental abuse, experts now agree alcoholic personality is a combination of being a predictor and result coming from the disease.

For many years, the framework of alcoholism has been researched.  With this addiction affecting millions of people in the United States alone, finding triggers, predictors, and solutions is critical.  One expert has researched the progression associated with alcoholism, showing that early on, an individual feels depressed but over time, this turns to being paranoid and not trusting anyone.  Eventually, the alcoholic reaches the point of despair, feeling like a complete failure.

Other factors that contribute to the alcoholic personality include irritability, denial, becoming defensive or aggressive, irrational thinking and behavior, isolation, remorse, putting blame on others, withdrawing from society, anxiety, overwhelming fears, deep depression, additional but imaginary and illnesses.  This is why trying to help someone get out of alcohol abuse early in the disease process is much easier and more successful than the person that has been an alcoholic for a long time.

That does not mean someone with a serious alcohol addiction cannot get help, recover, and go on to live a happy, productive life.  For this to happen at any state, the alcoholic has to begin reversing the various factors of the alcoholic personality.  As an example, through therapy, the individual would become aware of the problem and take responsibility, see things more optimistically, build new friendships, experience courage, and so on.

Without doubt, being an alcoholic takes hold and getting out of the situation is challenging but it is possible with good support and the right therapy.  If family members and friends can learn the different factors of an alcoholic personality, they could confirm their concerns and gauge how deep into the addition the person is.  Going through intervention and standing behind the person as he or she moves toward full recovery is going to make the process far more successful.