Similarly, the types of personality disorders, including their combinations, found to be related to alcoholism are very heterogeneous. The most consistent have been: histrionic/dependent, paranoid, dependent/paranoid/ obsessive-compulsive, narcissistic/avoidant, antisocial, borderline, and avoidant/borderline (54).
There is a strong association between antisocial personality disorder and alcoholism. Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a lack of regard for laws and authority. People who have antisocial personality disorder engage in dangerous behaviors, lack guilt and display low impulse control.
Axis I disorders commonly associated with alcoholism include bipolar disorder, certain anxiety disorders (e.g., social phobia, panic disorder, and post–traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]), schizophrenia, and major depression (Helzer and Przybeck 1988; Kessler et al.
Borderline Personality Disorder As A Co-Occurring Disorder
These symptoms vary so greatly that it is common for there to be overlap with other disorders. This is why people who have chronically abused alcohol over a long period of time can develop similar symptoms to BPD.
Additional Alcoholic Personality Traits
Often someone who is abusing alcohol will also display the following signs and become: Insecure. Sensitive. Impulsive.
Generally, people drink to either increase positive emotions or decrease negative ones. This results in all drinking motives falling into one of four categories: enhancement (because it's exciting), coping (to forget about my worries), social (to celebrate), and conformity (to fit in).
Turns out, there are four kinds of drunk personalities that coincidentally match up with some popular names you'll likely recognize from your childhood: Hemingway, Mary Poppins, Mr. Hyde, and the Nutty Professor.
Anger and rage can become extremely strong when a person is drunk, and the effects of alcohol can provoke dramatic outbursts or episodes of violence. If a person with BPD drinks habitually and also exhibits out-of-control rage, aggression or violence, the obvious problem may seem to be the alcohol.
Separations, disagreements, and rejections—real or perceived—are the most common triggers for symptoms. A person with BPD is highly sensitive to abandonment and being alone, which brings about intense feelings of anger, fear, suicidal thoughts and self-harm, and very impulsive decisions.
Alcohol can also affect memory and concentration, both of which are common for borderlines in times of stress or dissociation. Borderlines are already impulsive and have a high risk of self-harming behaviour. Alcohol makes people lose their inhibitions just the same and increases the risk of suicide.
Alcohol can make some people more emotional than usual, causing them to cry more easily. However, for some, alcohol can cause anger and aggression, which can become a real problem.
Psychosis associated with alcohol can occur with acute intoxication, alcohol withdrawal, and chronic alcoholism. Alcohol-related psychosis is also known as alcohol hallucinosis.
Other Common Alcoholic Personality Traits
Others will be irritable, anxious, and aggressive both when they drink and when they go through alcohol withdrawal. Alcohol dependence can also make a person impatient and easily aggravated. Additionally, you might notice impulsiveness or other erratic traits.
Neuroticism scores were significantly higher for both male and female alcoholics than for their normal-drinking co-twins; and intra-pair differences in neuroticism were significantly correlated with intra-pair differences in severity of dependence.
Borderline personality disorder is one of the most painful mental illnesses since individuals struggling with this disorder are constantly trying to cope with volatile and overwhelming emotions.
Common triggers of BPD rage can include: Emotionally challenging situations that seem threatening. Situations where the person fears abandonment. BPD splitting, which is a type of black-and-white thinking where people see things as either all-good or all-bad.
Typically individuals with BPD have difficulty trusting others. Irritability and inappropriate anger with temper tantrums may occur. The symptoms of BPD may resemble love addiction. While love addiction is not medically diagnosable, addictive behavior is difficult to live with.
BPD makes people more likely to engage in impulsive or risky behaviors, such as: Speeding or other unsafe driving. Unprotected sex or sex with strangers. Binge eating.
Because FP is someone who the person with BPD feels stable and safe with, who is more likely to calm them down than fight back when they get emotional, they often get to the point where they believe their FP would rescue them. The more time they spend together, the more obsessed the individual with BPD becomes.
But although under the influence you may well act differently, that in itself doesn't mean that drinking reveals—or can reveal—who you actually are. It may, indeed, loosen up a part of you that you generally keep under wraps.
The Neuroticism/Emotional stability is the strongest predictor of personality trait that discriminates between binge drinkers and non-drinkers and moderate drinkers in women (22), with low scores in binge drinkers.