6 Experiences That Can Actually Change Your Personality

Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Are you high strung or laid back? Do you like new experiences or do you shy away from change? These are all questions that help us decipher our personalities, or the traits that identify what fundamentally makes us, us. Scientists have long believed that personality traits were fixed, stemming from a complex mix of biological factors, genetics, and the environments in which we were raised to create all of our distinct behaviors. In fact, Psychology Today reports that personality is often seen as, for the most part, unchangeable. Only something that deeply affected the brain’s biology would be able to change our personality, and it needs to be momentous in order for it to have a lasting effect.
So, can experiences change our personality? It’s absolutely possible. Depending on the impact of what occurred, and how the event reacted with our body’s chemistry, there is a very high possibility that who we are can actually change. But what events would cause such a prolific shift in our basic characteristics

Organ Transplants

There have been several reported cases that patients who have received an organ transplant began to mysteriously acquire personality traits attributed to the donor. The logic behind these stories comes from the cellular memory theory, which states that cells within the body possess certain markers of our personality traits, preferences, and histories, independent of our genes. While the theory is not universally supported, studies have found credence for cellular memory. For example, at the School of Nursing in Honolulu, 10 recent heart transplant patients were found to have two to five personality characteristics of their former donor, ranging from tastes in food, art, sexual activities, recreational activities, and even new sensory experiences.
One particularly freaky case featured an 8-year-old girl having vivid dreams of the murder of her donor, which a psychiatrist later evaluated as actual physical incidents. The girl went on to help the police to find the culprit of her donor’s murder, including assisting them with the time, place, and the murder weapon

Ovulation

It’s no surprise here that biology will often intervene with the way we behave to remind us to perpetuate our species, but sometimes it does this in very strange ways. According to Psychology Today, studies have found that women who are ovulating tend to go into full-on sex mode without even realizing it. When a woman is at her peak fertility during her cycle, she will often pursue men with more stereotypically masculine characteristics — a muscular body, square jaw, lower voice, and more dominant behavior — while during menstruation, she may go for the more gentle man.
What’s more, the ovulating woman is more in the mood, favoring erotic books or movies. She is also more inclined to wear more revealing clothing. Interestingly enough, because women are less inhibited during this time, they tend to engage in more risky behaviors outside of sex, like gambling or placing high bets at auctions. Some researchers have even found that ovulation and sexual maturity in general predisposes women to an increased risk of psychological disorders like depression and anxiety.

Taking Magic Mushrooms

Psychedelic drugs have always been known to expose the mind to some seriously trippy experiences, but did you know that doing magic mushrooms just once can change your personality, potentially for good? Researchers from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies told Live Science that after giving participants psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound in magic mushrooms, participants reported being more open to new experiences. Those who reported moments of transcendence and profoundness the likes of which they had never experienced previously kept this open characteristic well after a year from the experiment.
Those who especially claimed their trip to be “mystical,” which was 30 out of the 51 participants, were particularly appreciative of new experiences. Researchers believe that this has little to do with the psilocybin itself, but more because of the changes these people experienced while undergoing the trip. The periods of introspection were so powerful, it ultimately altered these people’s perceptions on the world

Infection

While having an infection can often result in a few days of sickness, some scientists believe there are more lasting effects that can change your behavior. According to Psychology Today’s correspondent, psychiatrist Robert Bransfield, about 65 microbes have been associated with mental illnesses, personality changes, and cognitive decline.
The most shocking example: Lyme disease. Bransfield states that sometimes those who are infected with Lyme disease will develop aggressive, violent behavior they did not have previously, in addition to depression and suicidal tendencies. “Although most patients with Lyme/tick-borne disease do not become violent, a small percent of patients who become infected develop a type of neurological dysfunction that can increase their risk of aggressiveness,” Bransfield said. “In working with a number of patients with Lyme/tick-borne diseases, it is apparent to many clinicians these conditions can cause reduced frustration tolerance, irritability, depression, cognitive impairments and mood swings, but more significantly, in a few patients, suicidal and aggressive

Brain Surgery

The brain is one of the most complex and least understood organs in the human body, so it’s no surprise that brain surgery may have repercussions on personality that we often cannot prevent. According to Psychology Today, surgery to the frontal or temporal lobes, amygdala, and hippocampus often result in increased physical aggression, unpredictable emotions, memory impairment, and an inability to control impulses.
In many cases, the changes in the brain combined with the trauma following surgery can lead to a higher risk of mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, PTSD, or obsessive compulsive disorder. Patients who have had brain surgery are also more prone to substance abuse.

Unemployment

Losing your job is never easy, and the months of unemployment that follow is enough to make anyone depressed. But beyond the shared feelings of unfulfillment many people feel after being laid off, researchers have also found complete personality changes that occur within individuals who no longer have jobs.
A study published in The Journal of Applied Psychology surveyed 6,797 Germans and found that those who remained unemployed for years experienced changes in agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness. Women, in particular, became less agreeable immediately after a year of unemployment, while men coped with a jobless life by experiencing spikes in agreeableness that quickly dipped after three years with no work.
It turns out many people do find their identity within their careers, and without them, that identity gets an overhaul