This is an interesting
article that I ran across today. I often
question myself about this very question.
I seem to have different answers at different times in my life, but you
need to read this article and see how it fits into your lifestyle.
Emmanuel Kuntsche
and Sarah Callinan are alcohol policy researchers at La Trobe University in
Australia. They explain even those who
aren't dependent on alcohol should know their type. Your reasons for drinking influence your
physical and mental health generally.
It's easy to see alcohol consumption being a result of thousands of
years of ritual and a lifetime of habit.
But have you ever stopped to consider why it is you choose to drink? Knowing what motivates people to drink is
important to better understanding their needs when it comes to encouraging them
to drink less, or in a less harmful way.
Personally,
everyone can come up with many reasons why he or she is drinking, which makes a
scientific understanding of the reasons difficult. But there is something called the
motivational model of alcohol use, that argues we drink because we expect a
change in how we feel after we do. Originally
developed to help treat alcohol dependence, the ideas described in the model
led to a new understanding of what motivates people to drink. More precisely, the model assumes people
drink to increase positive feelings or decrease negative ones. They're also motivated by internal rewards
such as enhancement of a desired personal emotional state, or by external
rewards such as social approval.
This results in
all drinking motives falling into one of four categories: enhancement (because
it's exciting), coping (to forget about my worries), social (to celebrate), and
conformity (to fit in). Drinkers can be high or low in any number of drinking
motives - people are not necessarily one type of drinker or the other. All other factors - such as genetics,
personality or environment - are just shaping our drinking motives, according
to this model. So drinking motives are a final pathway to alcohol use. That is,
they're the gateway through which all these other influences are channeled.
1. Social Drinking
To date, nearly all the research
on drinking motives has been done on teens and young adults. Across cultures and countries, social
motives are the most common reason young people give for drinking alcohol. In this model, social drinking may be about
increasing the amount of fun you are having with your friends. This fits in with the idea that drinking is
mainly a social pastime. Drinking for social motives is associated with
moderate alcohol use.
2. Drinking to Conform
When people only drink on social
occasions because they want to fit in - not because it's a choice they would
normally make - they drink less than those who drink mainly for other reasons. These are the people who will sip a glass of
champagne for a toast, or keep a wine in their hand to avoid feeling different
from the drinkers around them. In the
last couple of years, programs like Hello Sunday Morning have been encouraging
people to take a break from drinking. And
by making this more socially acceptable, they may also be decreasing the
negative feedback some people receive for not drinking, although this is a
theory that needs testing.
3. Drinking for Enhancement
Beyond simply drinking to socialize,
there are two types of adolescents and young adults with a particular risky
combination of personality and drinking motive preference. First are those who drink for enhancement
motives. They are more likely to be
extroverted, impulsive, and aggressive. These young people (often male) are
more likely to actively seek to feel drunk - as well as other extreme
sensations - and have a risk-taking personality.
4. Drinking to Cope
Second, those who drink mainly for
coping motives have higher levels of neuroticism, low level of agreeableness
and a negative view of the self. These drinkers may be using alcohol to cope
with other problems in their life, particularly those related to anxiety and
depression. Coping drinkers are more
likely to be female, drink more heavily and experience more alcohol-related
problems than those who drink for other reasons. While it may be effective in the short term,
drinking to cope with problems leads to worse long-term consequences. This may
be because the problems that led to the drinking in the first place are not
being addressed.
Why It Matters
There is promising research that
suggests knowing the motives of heavy drinkers can lead to interventions to
reduce harmful drinking. For instance,
one study found that tailoring counselling sessions to drinking motives
decreased consumption in young women, although there was no significant
decrease in men. This research stream
is limited by the fact we really only know about the drinking motives of those
in their teens and early 20s. Our
understanding of why adults are drinking is limited, something our research
group is hoping to study in the future.
Next time you have a drink, have a think
about why you are choosing to do so. There are many people out there having a
drink at night to relax. But if you're aiming to get drunk, you have a higher
chance than most of experiencing harm. Alternatively,
if you are trying to drink your problems away, it's worth remembering those
problems will still be there in the morning.
