Do you believe you have an addictive personality, which is why you can’t control your drinking? Are you resigned to the fact you’re genetically more prone to addictionAddiction is an uncontrolled compulsion to continue engaging in an activity despite suffering negative personal or professional consequences. More than others, thanks to the genetic cards you’ve been dealt? Let’s look at addictive personality in more detail.
In the 1950s, 80% of men and 40% of women in the UK smoked. If some people are genetically more prone to addictionAddiction is an uncontrolled compulsion to continue engaging in an activity despite suffering negative personal or professional consequences. More than others, then that would suggest 60% of people in the UK at the time smoked, thanks partly to their addictive personalities.
Today* 14.7% of UK adults smoke, suggesting that individuals displaying addictive personalities have reduced by 45.3% in 70 years. An extraordinary evolutionary feat, a historical first at that speed.
And while numbers declined in the UK, the opposite was happening in Africa. Smokers doubled in many African nations between 1967-76, with Lesotho having the highest rates at 26.7% of the population in 2022.
If it was genetics, how can humans in one part of the world simultaneously evolve in the opposite direction to others elsewhere?
And, if some of us are victims of addictive personalities, how do we explain the rise in alcohol consumption in the UK while smoking has declined? If this was down to genetics, wouldn’t we expect alcohol to echo the rise and fall of cigarette consumption?
“But some people can get addicted to more than one thing in their lifetimes”, – I hear you say. “And what about the families with generations of alcohol and drug abuse?”. I would argue that this is because the root cause of the individual’s or family’s distress and the resulting behaviour has never been fully addressed. And an absence of social connectivity, belonging and opportunities is the leading cause of addictionAddiction is an uncontrolled compulsion to continue engaging in an activity despite suffering negative personal or professional consequences. More.
Check out the following (free) Pep to learn a bit more about connectivity’s role in addictionAddiction is an uncontrolled compulsion to continue engaging in an activity despite suffering negative personal or professional consequences. More.
*2022