The Psychology of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction

Really understanding and getting to the root of the causes of alcoholism and drug addiction isn't straightforward - because they are complex illnesses by nature.
Genetic factors certainly play a role - but I believe it's the impact of the environment that is most telling because ultimately we're shaped by our environment - parents and family especially, friends, experiences etc.
So when considering the impact our psychological makeup plays in drug addiction and alcoholism - our psychological makeup is largely formed in our formative childhood years - mostly from our family environment, particularly our parents.
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.
But if our early years are fraught with turmoil, instability or trauma - whether it be through having an alcoholic parent for example, losing a loved one, parents divorcing, being abused, or anything else that may affect us emotionally - we tend to develop various coping mechanisms to deal with that, which can then manifest in a number of ways (not always immediately though).
This could be anything from depression, to various forms of eating disorders, anger, withdrawing into your shell, excessive worrying, and then naturally alcoholism and drug addiction too.
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.

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Carl-Peter talks more in depth on the Psychology of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction on his website. Articles of his that are especially popular are the one on Depression and Alcoholism and the other one on Alcoholism and Anxiety.

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