The Student Room Group

Are some people born "addicts"?

My younger borther has struggled his whole life, when he was younger, man did he love to eat! He was chubby at first but enjoyed working out a lot too so never really struggled with weight. But now, i've seen it for years, first around alcohol: he could go without drink for weeks but when he did, he wouldn't stop until he at least got really, really drunk, even at weddings and family dos. E-cigs, can smoke a cartridge in a day even if he doesn't particularly like it. And now it's the same situation with weed.

If he gets a bag he will not stop until it's all gone. And apparently weed being non-toxic means it's ok to go completely nuts.

Do some otherwise intelligent folk not know when to stop? And is it genetic? I admit do enjoy the occasional drink, but only if i'm with my gf or other social environment. But i've never felt the need to go over board like this and I would say i've more to stress about than him.

I'm worried because i'm supposed to be looking after him (our parents are abroad) and now he talks about how cool psychedelics are which got me concerned.

Does he actually need help of some kind? He doesn't seems emotionally distressed in anyway?
(edited 11 years ago)
What you mean is, he has pretty ****ty will-power and self-control, when it comes to everything from food to e-cigs. It doesn't make him stupid, it makes him greedy. He gets away with it so why would he stop?
(edited 11 years ago)
As a biologist I can't help but hold the opinion that everything is influenced by genetics... but all behaviours are controllable by the person carrying them out. The only thing that differs is the difficulty with which control can be achieved.
Reply 3
One of my teachers at secondary school said that a case study was performed which gave the result that 94% of people are addicted to something, whether it be something simple like checking their phone or something a lot more serious. It's also very common for people to replace one addiction with another.
I strongly believe this is not genetic at all...more down to experiences of the past (mainly from childhood). I personally reckon particularly things in ones childhood strongly influence whether they have an addictive personality or not.

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