People may use, misuse, or abuse substances for a number of reasons. Some possible reasons are the influences of peers, family problems, and the availability of substances in the community. For certain people, personality problems are just as important as these social influences. This article provides information on personality traits and disorders that are often seen in substance abusers.

Personality traits are the stable ways people have of thinking, feeling, perceiving, and relating to others. The social environment does shape personality traits to some extent, but people are also born different in the degree to which they are sociable, emotional, agreeable, impulsive, active, and so on.

Research does not support the idea that a person can have an addictive personality. However, research does show that several traits are common among substance abusers. These traits are thought to be one group of risk factors for tobacco, alcohol...