Driven Further: High-Stress Jobs, Achievement, and Addiction Treatment

People who choose high-stress jobs often share personality traits that may increase vulnerability to addiction. Contrary to the stereotype of addicts as weak-willed, unmotivated, and predisposed for failure, the traits that drive you toward success and effective leadership may be the very same traits that lead you toward addictive behaviors. David J. Linden, PhD, a neuroscience professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, writes:

When we think of the qualities we seek in visionary leaders, we think of intelligence, creativity, wisdom and charisma, but also the drive to succeed, a hunger for innovation, a willingness to challenge established ideas and practices. But in fact, the psychological profile of a compelling leader […] is also that of the compulsive risk-taker, someone with a high degree of novelty-seeking behavior. In short, what we seek in leaders is often the same kind of personality type that is found in addicts, whether they are dependent on gambling, alcohol, sex or drugs.

Linden theorizes that the obsessive, high-risk pleasure seeking that drives successful professionals stems from the a genetic mutation in the way the brain responds to dopamine that also increases the propensity for addictive behavior. Rather than deriving an unusually high level of pleasure from factors like risk-taking, success, and addictive substances, your brain may release lower levels of dopamine in response to pleasurable stimulation, creating a need for more risk-taking, more success, and more substance use to satisfy you. The mutation causes you to seek out extreme experiences in hopes of psychological pay off, manifesting in both professional gains and intensifying reliance on drugs and alcohol.

While genetics may play a role in the formation of the driven personality, they do not tell the whole story. Environmental factors, particularly within your family of origin, can deeply impact personality development at critical life stages and influence your desire for success, propensity for risk-taking, and relationship with drugs and alcohol. Research suggests that early childhood experiences can be a significant factor in both high achievement and substance abuse. Constance Scharff, PhD, says:

What makes someone achieve at that level – the top executives – is often a stress or trauma that happened early on. There’s something, usually an early experience, that fuels that kind of drive, and oftentimes it’s the same thing that drives addiction. The vast majority didn’t have some sort of basic needs met as children, so they’re driven very, very hard to succeed. But the pain that goes with that is also what they’re self-medicating for.

When you have an underlying psychological trigger such as childhood trauma, your addiction cannot be viewed in isolation, but must be treated alongside the emotional distress in order to address the root cause of your substance abuse. Traditional 12-step programs are insufficient for dealing with addiction fuelled by early childhood experiences, as they fail to comprehensively heal these formative wounds.