The cognitive approach to alcohol addiction

Question 1

What is initiation cognitive approach to alcohol addiction?

Answer 1

Trauma in childhood leads to depression/anxiety so person turns to alcohol to relieve symptoms

Question 2

What is maintenance cognitive approach to alcohol addiction?

Answer 2

Person with low self-esteem escalates from use to addiction
Person gets ‘help’ from alcohol for self – esteem
Alcohol is used for stress relief

Question 3

Why do people relapse cognitive approach to alcohol addiction?

Answer 3

Trying to stop drinking creates withdrawal symptoms
Stress of life and stress of alcohol causes relapse
Khantzian says the underlying problem (e.g. depression) needs to be addressed to help addict

Question 4

What are the strengths of the cognitive approach to alcohol addiction

Answer 4

Supports the research on the effect of trauma
Adverse childhood experiences (ace’s) correlated with later addiction in 10,000 people
In a study of 34,000 Americans those with mood disorders were 7 times more likely to self-medicate with alcohol and to become alcoholics

Question 5

What are the weaknesses of the cognitive approach to alcohol addiction

Answer 5

There is a weakness with the idea of specificity – many people addicted to one drug usually used another and that the type of drug used can be influenced by peers
cause and effect: a study of 1000 18,21 and 25 year olds showed that depression did not occur before alcohol use (so did not cause it) but was liked to create a greater risk of depression.