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Addiction to Alcohol/Psychological/Mental causes of addiction
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Question
Dear sir,
For a school project I'm doing research to the mental/psychological causes of addiction, and I was hoping that you could help me out with some questions.
- What are the proven mental/psychological causes of addiction? (Does depression, enviroment, family situation, etc. play a part in addiction.)
- Is it true that some people are mentally more vulnerable to addiction than others? If so, how come?
- When people are physically totally cured, are there any psychologycal/mental causes which make them fall back into their habits easily again?
I would really appreciate if you could answer these questions. Any other information that you can provide about the psychological/mental causes of addiction is very welcome as well.
Thank you!
Joël Zwaan (16 yr.)
The Netherlands
Greetings to you, Joël.
You have asked:
>> What are the proven mental/psychological causes of addiction? (Does depression, environment, family situation, etc. play a part in addiction.)
Yes, there are factors such as “depression, environment, family situation, etc.” than can “play a part in addiction”, but that does not mean those things are “proven mental/psychological causes of addiction”. Rather, or at best, such things are merely contributing factors.
To understand all of this, it is first important to know people have instincts to be satisfied, or, said differently, needs to be met. We all need, want and love to be needed, wanted and loved, and we do not feel complete or validated or fulfilled until we are. Instinctually, we seek food, shelter and fellowship, and we are variously dependent upon other people for the satisfaction of those natural and inherent instincts. So then, it is when our instincts are not being satisfied that we can become emotionally or psychologically “addicted” to the effect(s) we get from just about anything that will either cause us to either feel “complete or validated or fulfilled” or simply numbed from the fact we are not.
>> Is it true that some people are mentally more vulnerable to addiction than others? If so, how come?
Yes, and much of that stems from not experiencing “completeness, validation or fulfillment” during childhood. For example, an individual that was always hungry as a child is almost certainly going to be unbalanced in adulthood.
>> When people are physically totally cured, are there any psychological/mental causes which make them fall back into their habits easily again?
That question is slanted toward failure rather than toward recovery, but yes, and with the matter of being “physically totally cured” set aside. Physically, I will never be an individual who can drink safely, but that is irrelevant as long as my past obsession for the effect of alcohol never-again returns or is pursued ... and all of that is related to my feeling “complete or validated or fulfilled” as I go along.
>> Any other information that you can provide about the psychological/mental causes of addiction is very welcome as well.
Again, there are no stand-alone “psychological/mental causes of addiction” such as being suggested in your course of study. Hence, today’s “treatments” for addictions are both ineffective and misleading. If you would like to truly understand these matters, begin to read and study the actual experience shared in “Alcoholics Anonymous”, the book.
Joseph Lee O.
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Joseph Lee O.
Expertise
Greetings to you! Amidst the insufficiency of all the philosophical, religious and “self-help” approaches to relief from chronic alcoholism, I have personally experienced the content of “Alcoholics Anonymous”, the book. Thus, I can now explain at least the essence of the physical, mental and emotional aspects of an alcoholic's inherent condition and plight, and I can show why a spiritual solution is required and how it works and how to attain one.
Experience
The oldest of four boys, I grew up in a religious, Midwestern-USA family. Unable to decline a friendly offer in a social setting, I had "no effective mental defense against the first drink" ("Alcoholics Anonymous", the book, page 43), and took my very first drink ever at age 24 ... and within minutes I had become obsessed with getting more of the effect that glass of homemade wine had given me. Alcohol had just done something *for* me that nothing else had ever done; it had seemingly "fixed" something inside me I had not even known was broken.
Over the next seven years of my life, I "drank up" just about everything and everyone ever meaning much to me at all, and I eventually abandoned my young family so I could drink and smoke pot at will. For, you see, alcohol was giving me a good-to-go feeling about life and a sense of control I had never before had, and at least in the early days of my drinking it could kill just about any pain that came along.
At age 31, however, circumstances and consequences had piled up all around me in ways that were making it obvious I could not continue on much longer. Life had become too tough, my pains had grown too great and the dangers of continuing to drink had become too undeniable for me to be able to continue believing I might ultimately survive an inescapable drop to the bottom of the pit. I still wanted to be able to drink safely as in days past, but something had seemingly "taken over" my drinking and was dragging me completely out-of-control after just one drink. So, and even while completely overwhelmed by the thought of facing life alcohol-free, I decided to stop drinking altogether ... and I quickly discovered I could not. No matter what I said, thought or did even just "one day at a time", I always ended up drinking once again. Where I wanted to drink safely, I could not, and neither could I remain abstinent for very long at all ... and such is the physical "allergy" (where one drink takes another) coupled with alcoholism’s mental-emotional obsession for the effect of alcohol ...
... but then I met a small group of people who personally understood my deadly dilemma - my complete personal powerlessness - and those same folks were quite able to propose a permanent solution. I accepted, of course, and today it is as if I "could not drink even if [I] would" ("Alcoholics Anonymous", the book, page 57), and for that I now remain unendingly grateful.
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