The people I know who like to drink the most are also people I would say are highly anxious, which makes me wonder if they're using alcohol as self medication. Just an informal observation---not claiming a universal truth here.
100% that the folks I know who are alcoholics have high anxiety. It’s not the same exact kind of anxiety in all of them, but I believe it’s at the root of their problem with alcohol.
Part of my understanding is that for at least some of these folks they never learned to deal with emotions. They never learned how to feel and accept that feelings exist. Alcohol is the agent that they utilize to help keep those feelings at a level they can manage. It’s a numbing agent.
The social chaos that these individuals because of their alcoholism is so enormous. And I’m at a point where I can see how it influences their adult children and it’s depressing. You can see how the disease is transmitted from generation to generation. Someone might be disposed towards alcoholism, but coming from an alcoholic family and the chaos that comes from that makes it even more likely that the kids will become alcoholics.
You are right with your observations.
The root cause are mental health disorders like depression.
There is no fast working anti-depressant like alcohol.
People try to solve their problems in the short path with it, it works, but in the long run, the problems coming back even more severe.
Untreated disorders will be amplified like abuse, depression etc.
But its understandable people try alcohol first, until therapy and medication works, its a hard time.
Yes, it's usually a way to cope with negative emotions. Stopping drinking is the relatively easy part. What's hard is staying sober - building up skills and new behaviours to replace the old ones so you don't relapse again.
