Why Do I Abuse Alcohol?

In the early days when you start your drinking career drinking in moderation, alcohol gives you that rosy glow, adds extra enjoyment to an evening or occasion, and generally makes you feel better about yourself and the world. What could be better than that?

There are a number of reasons we abuse alcohol and/or become alcoholic, usually the primary reason being to re-experience the good feeling alcohol gives you in the beginning, then as time goes on alcohol seems to help to overcome depression, makes us more sociable, and can numb any emotional pain we are experiencing.

We also drink to release our repressed emotions, to run away from feelings of emptiness (the void) or to numb our internal world of chaos. And it works – for a while.

Alcohol also relieves boredom.

And as if that wasn’t enough, alcohol also provides us with a false sense of confidence, gives us pleasure in the beginning stages, makes us feel more powerful, and provides energy, all while chasing our internal demons away.

Pretty attractive for someone who lacks confidence, may be guilt ridden, or has been wounded by life in some way that drives them to seek some form of relief, in the case of alcohol abuse, from a bottle.

The irony of seeking solace in alcohol for the person who is going to become a problem drinker, is while in some cases the initial payoff can range from temporary relief from life’s problems to actually becoming a survival technique (as the alcoholism progresses) we are actually compounding the damage by using a substance that will ultimately make us feel even more unworthy, humiliated, and depressed, as well as having the common side effect of giving us a grim outlook on life and instead of numbing our internal world of chaos, compounding it, and creating new problems in our real external life situations.

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