Addicts will experience a change in personalities as their brains become more and more damaged. Family members and friends may not be able to recognize these personality changes as signs of addiction, or may just chalk it up to puberty or a “tough spell.”
Drug and alcohol abuse is a difficult issue that affects more families than most people realize. One reason someone’s abuse issues can become so dire is that family or friends didn’t realize that their loved one was caught up in addiction until their condition became severe, and early detection and treatment can be key in achieving long-term sobriety.
Addicts will experience a change in personalities as their brains become more and more damaged. Family members and friends may not be able to recognize these personality changes as signs of addiction, or may just chalk it up to puberty or a “tough spell.” But as stated before, being aware of the psychological changes that addicts undergo can be vital to recovery. Here are some personality trait changes that addicts will begin to exhibit.
Increased Need for Privacy and Isolation
For addicts, privacy is vital for them to be able to ingest the harmful substances. Obviously, they don’t want family and friends to know that anything is wrong or what they’re taking, so they’ll isolate themselves, lie to loved ones, and drop any hobbies they once enjoyed. On the other side of this red flag, a person with addictions will stop hanging out with their normal group of friends and may start spending almost all their time with other addicts.
Frequent and Dramatic Mood Swings
Since addictive drugs flood the brain’s pleasure center with chemicals, addicts feel a burst of euphoria (also known as a “high”) when they take drugs. However, with a dramatic boost in pleasure also comes with a heavy downswing. The drugs will damage the brain’s ability to produce the pleasure chemicals on their own, thereby creating states of deep depression when the addict doesn’t have any drugs in their system. One big thing to watch for here is encountering someone who comes home profoundly upset or sad, and then returns from some alone time in a significantly better mood.
Increased Anger and Impulsivity
Drugs can affect the areas of the brain that control impulsivity and manage our anger response, which means that people with addictions can explode with rage on a regular basis. This means that even small issues can cause addicts to yell, scream, and even violently lash out, resulting in physical harm, and these episodes will just happen more frequently. The other part of losing impulse control is that it becomes easy for addicts to take risks, especially ones that will make it possible for them to keep their addiction alive.
Some of these big warning-sign behaviors include:
- Stealing money
- Stealing pills
- Stealing merchandise and returning for the money
- Breaking into cars or houses
- Feign pain or injuries to obtain drugs
Loss of Interest in Life
For lack of a better term, a person addicted to drugs will lose interest in doing almost anything except taking more drugs. Getting their next hit of euphoria will become the sole focus in life. Watch for family and friends who completely fall out of their friend circles, won’t interact with family, and abandons school and work responsibilities.
The good news is that there is help and that these personality changes can be reversible. A brain that has been so damaged from drugs needs time to recover and needs to completely abstain from drugs and alcohol, so sobriety and treatment is vital to healing. Seek out a drug recovery program that will treat both the physical and psychological aspects of addiction.