Overview
An “addictive personality” is an informal collection of traits that are considered to place someone at a high risk of developing an addiction. These might include a strong preference for novelty-seeking and risk-taking behaviors, high emotional sensitivity that can compel a desire for immediate relief, or alignment with high-stress roles in professional and personal lives.
It should be noted that there is no clinical term or diagnosis for an “addictive personality.” It emerged primarily out of pop-psychology through memoirs and armchair theorizing about the kinds of persistent psychological mechanisms that raise someone’s risk of developing an addiction. There is no single profile or personality type that has been empirically validated so that it can be described as an “addictive personality,” even if researchers find that certain traits are associated with a higher risk of addiction.