Substance addiction can significantly change your personality for the worse. Unfortunately, many people struggling with addiction experience anger, mood swings, and loneliness as a result of their drug addiction. This can affect not just your own mood and happiness, but can oftentimes greatly hurt your loved ones. In this article, you’ll learn several ways in which substance addiction can change your personality.
Hammocks on the Edisto is a women’s drug rehab in South Carolina that is committed to helping clients safely and effectively achieve long-lasting sobriety. We provide individualized treatment plans to ensure you receive the best possible care to target your unique recovery needs. Our women’s substance abuse treatment programs provide a comprehensive range of therapies and treatment options to ensure you receive tailored support to effectively progress along your road to recovery. Contact us today to learn more about how we can best support your recovery journey.
6 Ways Substance Addiction Can Change Your Personality
Addiction can change your personality because it changes your brain chemistry, thus impacting your mood and behavior. Below are several ways in which substance addiction can affect your personality.
1. Anger
First, many people struggling with addiction may experience a heightened sense of anger or irritability towards themselves and others. This may be due to a range of reasons. Some people may grow irritable if they have abused drugs or alcohol for an extended amount of time. Others may experience anger toward others who try to confront them about their drug problem.
2. Denial and Secrecy
Many individuals struggling with addiction may also experience a feeling of denial or secrecy. This is because they may feel guilty and ashamed of their addiction; therefore, resulting in the need to hide or deny their addiction. This need to hide their addiction can not only lead to a secretive personality but result in negative behaviors such as lying or trying to cover up their addiction.
3. Mood Swings
Many people with an addiction also experience mood swings. When individuals abuse a certain drug, they experience a desired high for a period of time. However, as their body consumes the substance, with time that desired effect eventually goes away, leading to oftentimes a crash and a desire to abuse more drugs to obtain that desired high again. Inevitably, this constant state of highs and lows can lead to mood swings.
4. Depression and Anxiety
People with an addiction can oftentimes experience co-occurring mental health disorders, like depression or anxiety. While neither substance addiction nor mental illness cause each other, those who have a substance use disorder experience a greater risk of struggling with a mental health condition than an individual who does not struggle with a drug addiction.
5. Loneliness and Isolation
Addiction can also be very isolating. Research found the feeling of loneliness is stronger in those who abuse drugs than those who don’t. This can be due to a variety of reasons, ranging from people feeling ashamed of their addiction to feeling like no one else could possibly understand their addiction struggles.
6. Engaging in Riskier Behavior
Last but not least, many people struggling with addiction may be more impulsive and thus engage in behavior that is riskier than what they would typically do if sober. Being impulsive and engaging in riskier behavior can lead to a range of dangerous consequences. From driving under the influence to engaging in riskier sexual activity, being impulsive can put your life and the lives of others at risk.
Time to Break Free From Addiction
There are several ways in which addiction can change your personality. It can lead to mood swings, anger, and riskier behavior that can put physical, mental, and emotional well-being at risk. However, you don’t have to suffer with addiction in silence for the rest of your life.
At Hammocks on the Edisto, we are here to help women struggling with addiction receive the support they need to lead healthier, happier lives. We understand how isolating a disease addiction can be. That’s why our compassionate women’s addiction treatment center is here to help you find your path to healing. You don’t have to fight your addiction all on your own. Contact us today to learn more about how we can best support your recovery journey.
