The drug triad

[Animal]

Oh, and.

Folks keep posting this link, but here's the excerpt where it's convenient:

Thank you for posting this, I was looking for it because I knew I'd seen it before!!! I will outline my drugs of choice in my hayday, though I will once again repeat that in the last 8 years I have maybe had 2 sips of someone else's wine at most.. and for the 4 years before that, even, my drug use was extremely limited.

Type 1 The Reformer
Excessive use of diets, vitamins, and cleansing techniques (fasts, diet pills, enemas). Under-eating for self-control: in extreme cases anorexia and bulimia. Alcohol to relieve tension.

Type 2 The Helper
Abusing food and over-the-counter medications. Bingeing, especially on sweets and carbohydrates. Over-eating from feeling "love-starved;" in extreme cases bulimia. Hypochondria to look for sympathy.

Type 3 The Achiever
Over-stressing the body for recognition. Working out to exhaustion. Starvation diets. Workaholism. Excessive intake of coffee, stimulants, amphetamines, cocaine, steroids or excessive surgery for cosmetic improvement.

Type 4 The Individualist
Over-indulgence in rich foods, sweets, alcohol to alter mood, to socialize, and for emotional consolation. Lack of physical activity. Bulimia. Depressants. Tobacco, prescription drugs, or heroin for social anxiety. Cosmetic surgery to erase rejected features.

Type 5 The Investigator
Poor eating and sleeping habits due to minimizing needs. Neglecting hygiene and nutrition. Lack of physical activity. Psychotropic drugs for mental stimulation and escape, narcotics for anxiety.

Type 6 The Loyalist
Rigidity in diet causes nutritional imbalances ("I don't like vegetables.") Working excessively. Caffeine and amphetamines for stamina, but also alcohol and depressants to deaden anxiety. Higher susceptibility to alcoholism than many types.

Type 7 The Enthusiast
The type most prone to addictions: stimulants (caffeine, cocaine, and amphetamines), Ecstasy, psychotropics, narcotics, and alcohol but tend to avoid other depressants. Wear body out with effort to stay "up." Excessive cosmetic surgery, pain killers.

Type 8 The Challenger
Ignore physical needs and problems: avoid medical visits and check-ups. Indulging in rich foods, alcohol, tobacco while pushing self too hard leads to high stress, strokes, and heart conditions. Control issues central, although alcoholism and narcotic addictions are possible.

Type 9 The Peacemaker
Over-eating or under-eating due to lack of self-awareness and repressed anger. Lack of physical activity. Depressants and psychotropics, alcohol, marijuana, narcotics to deaden loneliness and anxiety.

The bolded is where I stood in my hayday; my tritype is 4-8-7.

I tried ecstasy & cocaine a few times and did not like them. Stimulants don't do it for me except coffee to get my mind going in the morning. I loved LSD the most and downers & opium were a close second. After I gave that stuff up, I started drinking alcohol for the first time when I was 23, but I was never interested in it before that, and haven't been since I was 25. I've also been a coffee lover my whole life - that's the one thing I still do. I did a lot of experimentation with under-eating, exercising and taking drugs & doing experiments on myself to try to gain control.

Anyway, point being, when a person is a drug user, traumatized, etc, I am not sure how closely this would apply. After losing my faculties & all of my dreams going down the drain because of a chronic illness, having been a singer all my life and then losing my voice at 16 through no fault of my own when I was on my way to broadway, and had worked so hard for it all my life.... .and having all my hair fall out, losing the ability to walk or think, etc... it would make sense that once I could walk again (but had lost my voice and career forever) I would go out of my way to try to get control. Being that my illness ruins my ability to sleep, it would make sense I'd be attracted to downers. As for LSD, it's in my blood... I wanted to do LSD ever since it was introduced to me in the Drug Awareness program in 4th grade, and I read a bunch of literature about it when I was about 11 or 12.

For reasons like this, I hesitate to relate someone's drug use to typology, though I am certain that my masochism contributed to the style in which I approached it. Ie, torturing myself for experimental reasons.

 

[chubber]

Very much disagree with this. I think both rich and poor people do more drugs than people in the middle.

Monopoly: Go directly to jail; do not pass go, do not collect $200 From rich, pass through middle, straight to poor.

 

[chubber]

Type 4 The Individualist
Over-indulgence in rich foods, sweets, alcohol to alter mood, to socialize, and for emotional consolation. Lack of physical activity. Bulimia. Depressants. Tobacco, prescription drugs, or heroin for social anxiety. Cosmetic surgery to erase rejected features.

True for me at least. I have taken serotonin instead of antidepressants, but I guess for the same reason as stated. Also I have taken prescription medication for sleeping, which I kicked. My mind is still active at night but I've been trying to get alternative ways of getting myself to go to sleep. I used to have issues with my body, but I've come to learn and accept what they were and some people like it for some reason.

Interesting nonetheless.

 

[Animal]

Also I know a 9w1 who had a severe coke habit.

 

[Chad of the OttomanEmpire]

Anyway, point being, when a person is a drug user, traumatized, etc, I am not sure how closely this would apply. After losing my faculties & all of my dreams going down the drain because of a chronic illness, having been a singer all my life and then losing my voice at 16 through no fault of my own when I was on my way to broadway, and had worked so hard for it all my life.... .and having all my hair fall out, losing the ability to walk or think, etc... it would make sense that once I could walk again (but had lost my voice and career forever) I would go out of my way to try to get control. Being that my illness ruins my ability to sleep, it would make sense I'd be attracted to downers. As for LSD, it's in my blood... I wanted to do LSD ever since it was introduced to me in the Drug Awareness program in 4th grade, and I read a bunch of literature about it when I was about 11 or 12.

For reasons like this, I hesitate to relate someone's drug use to typology, though I am certain that my masochism contributed to the style in which I approached it. Ie, torturing myself for experimental reasons.

I agree, typology can play a role here, but as you point out, there are conceivably other reasons why someone might wind up doing drugs, physical health being one of them. I think at some level, human beings can develop drug habits that aren't related to type.

I think your LSD story is funny though. It had the opposite of the intended effect! I remember them brainwashing us in preschool (!), and when I had an asthma attack and my mom offered me "drugs" to help me, I became utterly convinced she was trying to kill me since "drugs make you die". XD

In my experience with 4s most are drug users more for the reasons you named with your sister. As for experimentation, I shared this approach with my type 7 friend. We both did a lot of LSD to expand limits & experiment. However, he also did a lot of other drugs to run away from himself & preferred those to LSD, whereas I liked the raw vulnerability of LSD and the inner struggles and facing all my demons with the intensity on tenfold. I cannot help but see my motives and approach as being a result of my tritype, however, I don't think that drug use in and of itself, is necessarily related to one's enneagram type. E-type might dictate how you approach it, what angle you take, but most people do drugs because they don't feel whole or they are dissatisfied in one way or another. Since 4s are most in touch with that sense of dissatisfaction, 4 is the type I can see as being MOST LIKELY to do drugs - aside from 8 or 7 for gluttony/lust reasons, because of the envy of a better life, something more extreme and intense, self-pity, love for emotional intensity and self-indulgently exploring one's own emotions, and feeling depressed and in pain.. etc. Drugs are just another mechanism which you can 'wallow' in, and then create a more tragic story for yourself so that someone wants to rescue you from yourself.

How can someone argue that a MASOCHISTIC PERSONALITY is NOT the most likely personality to develop a drug addiction??? Seriously?? I commend any 4 who avoided this - truly - but I still think 4 is the mOST LIKELY TYPE to self-indulge when it comes to drugs.

Type 4 cultural icons include: Tori Amos, Kurt Cobain, Elliott Smith, Marilyn Manson, Johnny Depp. Regardless of the variants, wings, and tritype, find me a type 4 cultural icon who does NOT have a serious drug addiction, and for each one, you will find 10 famous 4s who do.

OK, LOL, well find me any famous artist or a celebrity who does not have a serious drug problem. People weren't made to perform to the levels society expects of them, and I wouldn't be surprised if that were another factor beyond self-exploration and self-torture. Fame messes with people.

Now as for me, drugs have honestly been one of the "cool" things that "normal" people try when they're young, and that is something from which I am inherently excluded "because I'm me". Therefore, I can't do so without violating my sense of being unlike others, and hence, messing up my sense of identity. I should have said that before, but it's one of those things I'm always slightly embarrassed by.

I think the masochism can be turned the other way--I must suffer alone, and no one will ever care. There was no solace, not even drugs. *pity party* LOL. Sad but true.

So, I guess, being an inverse of my sister's story, I don't necessarily think one type is more prone than another--there'd be reasons for each type to do drugs, and reasons for each type not to do drugs.

Also I know a 9w1 who had a severe coke habit.

LOL!! NINES ON COKE!!