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THEORIES TO EXPLAIN ALCOHOL USE

Those trying to explain drinking behavior have always been more interested in alcoholism than in explaining alcohol use per se. Nonetheless from time to time, various theories have been advanced to explain the basic why behind alcohol use. Probably all contain some truth. To escape anxiety—"It calms me down, helps my nerves." "It helps me unwind after a hard day." This explanation can be thought of as the anxiety thesis and was derived from Freud's work. Freud concluded that in times of anxiety and stress, people fall back on things that have worked for them in the past. In theory, the things you will choose to relieve anxiety are those you did when you last felt most secure. That lovely, secure time might last have been at Mom's breast. It has been downhill ever since. In this case, use of the mouth (eating, smoking, drinking) would be chosen to ease stressful situations. This phenomenon is called oral fixation.

Another version of the anxiety thesis came from Donald Horton's anthropological studies. He observed that alcohol was used by primitive societies either ritually or socially to relieve the anxiety caused by an unstable environment. Drunken acts are acceptable and not punished. The greater the environmental stress, the heavier the drinking. Therefore, in this view, alcohol's anxiety-reducing property is the one universal key to why people drink alcohol. This theory has by and large been rejected as the sole reason for drinking. Indeed, as biological research advances are made and more is learned of the actual effects of alcohol, the drug, it can no longer even be said that alcohol does reduce anxiety.

Another theory that surfaced was based on the need for a feeling of power over oneself or one's environment. Most people don't talk about this, but take a look at the heavy reliance of the liquor industry on he-man models, executive types, and beautiful women surrounded by adoring males. People in ads celebrate winning anything with a drink of some sort.

The power theory was explored by researchers in the early 1970s, under the direction of David McClelland. They examined folktales from both heavy- and light-drinking societies. Their research indicated that there was no greater concern with relief from tension or anxiety in heavy-drinking societies than in those that consumed less. To look at this further, they conducted a study with college men over a period of 10 years. Without revealing the reasons for the study, they asked the students to write down their fantasies before, during, and after the consumption of liquor. The stories revealed that the students felt bigger, stronger, more influential, more aggressive, and more capable of great sexual conquest the more they drank. The conclusion was that people drink to experience a feeling of power. This power feeling was seen as having two different patterns, depending on the personality of the drinker. What was called p-power is a personal powerfulness, uninhibited and carried out at the expense of others. Social power, or s-power, is a more altruistic powerfulness, power to help others. This social power was found to predominate after two or three drinks; heavier drinking produced a predominance of p-power.

Another theory arose during the late '60s at the height of the "counterculture" when the use of drugs other than alcohol was extensive. This approach, as discussed by Andrew Weil, claimed that every human being has some need to reach out toward some larger experience. And people will try anything that suggests it self as a way to do that: alcohol, drugs, yoga, meditation. Some drugs are commonly known to "blow your mind" or are even designated as "mind-expanding drugs." Evidence cited for the seeking of altered states of consciousness begins with very young children who whirl, or hyperventilate, or attempt in other ways to produce a change in their experience. When older, people learn that chemicals can produce different states. In pursuit of these states, alcohol is often used because it is the one intoxicant we make legally available. The drug scene was seen as another answer to the same search. Weil suggested that this search arises from the "innate psychological drive arising out of the neurological structure of the human brain." His conclusion was that we have put the cart before the horse in focusing attention on drugs rather than on the states people seek from them. Thus he suggested that society acknowledge the need itself and cope with it in a positive rather than a negative way.

A newer perspective on factors that may contribute to alcohol use focuses on stresses associated with modern everyday life-—be it in the executive rat race, the declining economy, the changes in family structure. Use of alcohol is seen as one response to stress that may have long-term harmful consequences. Other responses to stress might include hypertension, ulcer disease, migraine headaches. Accordingly, stress management is a newly emerging field directed toward helping people develop alternative healthy ways of dealing with stress.

Current research is less concerned with identifying factors within the individual that motivate alcohol use. Instead, the interest has turned to the social settings in which people find themselves, in order to identify factors associated with patterns of alcohol use. Accordingly, for example, attention is turning to the role of peer pressure in determining adolescents' decisions to use alcohol, or the influence of parental standards in setting norms for their teenagers' drinking, or the impact of legislative approaches.

In general, the accepted stance now seems to be a "combination of factors" approach. One inescapable fact is that from the very earliest recorded times alcohol has been important to people. Sheldon Bacon, former head of the Rutgers School of Alcohol Studies made a point worth keeping in mind. He called attention to the original needs that alcohol might have served: satisfaction of hunger and thirst, medication or anesthetic, fostering of religious ecstasy. Our modern, complex society has virtually eliminated all these earlier functions. Now all that is left is alcohol the depressant, mood-altering drug, the possible, or believed, reliever of tension, inhibition, and guilt. Therefore, contemporary society has had to create new "needs" that alcohol can meet.

Myths

In thinking about alcohol use, remember that myths are equally important to people. Many think that alcohol makes them warm when they are cold (not so), sexier (in the courting, maybe; in the execution, not so), manlier, womanlier, cured of their ills (not usually), less scared of people (possibly), and better able to function (only if very little is taken). An exercise in asking a lot of people what a drink does for them will expose a heavy reliance on myths for their reasons.

Whatever the truth in the mixture of theory and myth, enough people in this country rely on the use of alcohol to accomplish something for them to support a $66.4 billion per year industry.

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