Alcoholism and drug addiction are complex illnesses. Getting to the bottom of their causes isn't straightforward. The fact that alcoholism and drug addiction is to a large degree hereditary due to genetic influences, certainly explains one of their major causes. But most significantly, we're largely shaped by our environment - parents, the media, our peers and our various experiences. 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. Generally speaking - if we come from a generally loving, stable and supportive family environment (especially in our early childhood years) - it usually means we grow up with better self confidence and are more comfortable with ourselves and who we are. 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 mean you find yourself developing a whole bunch of stuff - which could be anything from depression to anger, anxiety, different kinds of eating disorders and naturally various forms of addiction, including drugs and alcohol. 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. It doesn't, of course, always happen like that because naturally you will find that there are lots of addicts who had stable and loving upbringings. But when trying to understand the psychology of alcoholism and addiction, hopefully what I've shared with you will help.
With drug addiction and alcoholism being quite complex, if you're serious about wanting to get a handle on what they are, hopefully what I'm about to share with you will help your understanding.
To understand addiction and alcoholism in depth, you would need to know things like the causes of drug addiction and alcoholism, if alcoholism and addiction is a disease, the hereditary and genetic impact on alcoholism.
It does help knowing all that information, but I want to take it a step deeper first, to really help your understanding.
Having an alcoholic or drug addict parent who has passed down the addiction gene to you may increase your chances of going the same way, or you may simply find the stresses of life getting you down so alcohol or drugs have become your comfort, but there is still fundamentally a deeper reason at play.
An emptiness and lack of wholeness are what I believe are the underlying reasons you use drugs or alcohol. I know the feeling because I've been there. You wonder what your purpose is, you feel disconnected from people - from life.
Andrew Weil, M.D., summarises it brilliantly in his book Natural Health, Natural Medicine. 'Addiction is NOT a psychological or pharmacological problem, and CANNOT be solved by the methods of psychology or pharmacology. It is, at root, a SPIRITUAL concern, because it represents a misdirected attempt to achieve wholeness, to experience inner completeness and satisfaction.'
So in trying to understand, what is drug addiction and what is alcoholism actually? Remember that they are in essence a Spiritual 'problem.' And by doing that, you will be far more effective in treating and recovering from them successfully.
Carl-peter has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, self improvement and motivation and Alcohol Treatment. Having battled and struggled through his own addictions, Carl-Peter built his Help website to provide valuable info. Carl-peter's top article generates over 9900 views. to your Favourites.