Alcoholism - and any addiction for that matter is extremely complex. Getting to the root of what causes alcoholism and addiction certainly isn't straightforward.
Genetic factors and the fact that alcoholism and addiction is hereditary in many cases, certainly does play a role. But that only explains part of the story because ultimately we're all shaped by our environmental influences - parents, family, peers, experiences, media etc.
Now when looking at the role psychology plays in alcoholism and drug addiction - a large part of our psychological makeup is formed in our early childhood years. Primarily through our parents and family environment.
If our family environment is generally loving, supportive and stable through our early years especially, we'll develop a healthy sense of self-esteem, feel generally comfortable in our own skin, and be relatively well-adjusted.
However, if our younger years are filled with some sort of trauma, instability or emotional turmoil - like there being alcoholism in the family, abuse, losing a loved one, our parents separating, or anything we regard as being traumatic - we tend to create all sorts of coping mechanisms to help us deal with that, which can then show up in our lives in a number of different ways.
This could be anything from depression, to various forms of eating disorders, anger, withdrawing into your shell, excessive worrying, and then naturally alcoholism and drug addiction too.
It's pretty likely that if you speak to an addict or alcoholic - that there will be something that happened when they were young that effected them pretty bad. For me having an alcoholic parent was tough to deal with - also because how that impacted on our family.
Naturally it doesn't always happen that way. You'll find many cases, I'm sure, of alcoholics and drug addicts that were brought up in a loving, stable and supportive environment. But hopefully when considering alcoholism and psychology and trying to understand the psychology of addiction - everything will make a lot more sense for you.
Genetic factors and the fact that alcoholism and addiction is hereditary in many cases, certainly does play a role. But that only explains part of the story because ultimately we're all shaped by our environmental influences - parents, family, peers, experiences, media etc.
Now when looking at the role psychology plays in alcoholism and drug addiction - a large part of our psychological makeup is formed in our early childhood years. Primarily through our parents and family environment.
If our family environment is generally loving, supportive and stable through our early years especially, we'll develop a healthy sense of self-esteem, feel generally comfortable in our own skin, and be relatively well-adjusted.
However, if our younger years are filled with some sort of trauma, instability or emotional turmoil - like there being alcoholism in the family, abuse, losing a loved one, our parents separating, or anything we regard as being traumatic - we tend to create all sorts of coping mechanisms to help us deal with that, which can then show up in our lives in a number of different ways.
This could be anything from depression, to various forms of eating disorders, anger, withdrawing into your shell, excessive worrying, and then naturally alcoholism and drug addiction too.
It's pretty likely that if you speak to an addict or alcoholic - that there will be something that happened when they were young that effected them pretty bad. For me having an alcoholic parent was tough to deal with - also because how that impacted on our family.
Naturally it doesn't always happen that way. You'll find many cases, I'm sure, of alcoholics and drug addicts that were brought up in a loving, stable and supportive environment. But hopefully when considering alcoholism and psychology and trying to understand the psychology of addiction - everything will make a lot more sense for you.
About the Author:
Alcoholism and Drug Addiction are complex illnesses that effect not only the addict, but family and friends as well. For advice on living with an alcoholic and being able to recognise the signs of addiction as per the ten warning signs of alcoholism - you cannot afford to miss C-P's website
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