Comorbidity Of Social Anxiety And Alcohol Use Disorder

Newspaper headlines and public heath reports continually remind us that many abuse alcohol. Despite its many associated consequences, such as: increased hospital admissions, deaths, road accidents and assaults; alcohol dependence remains a prominent issue in today’s society. But what causes alcohol dependence? This essay will critically discuss and compare two psychological theories of alcohol dependence, social learning theory and alcohol expectancy theory.

The goal of the study aimed to determine if the effects of anxiety and depression on alcohol-related problems are best explained via their associations with DTC with specific effects or via their associations with more global measure o DTC by testing four distinct models.

Social anxiety is often misunderstood as a behavioral choice, and therefore those who suffer from this disease are often portrayed negatively. Research indicates that about 15 million people, equally men and women, begin suffering from social anxiety around age 13 (Anxiety and Depression Association of America). The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the difficulties of socially anxious individuals who suppress their emotions by drinking alcohol in order to adapt to their environment. Social anxiety is the fear of interaction with other people that brings on self-consciousness, feelings of being negatively judged and evaluated, and, as a result, leads to avoidance (Social Anxiety Institute, 2013).

As an example, individuals suffering from an anxiety disorder may start using a substance (eg. alcohol or drugs) in an effort to decrease their distress. These substances produce positive, rewarding short-term effects to the individual (Stewart & Conrod, 2008). However, this has negative long-term effects and can result in alcohol dependence. Hall and colleagues (2009) found that people with comorbid generalized anxiety disorder and substance use disorder had higher rates of alcohol and drug use in order to relieve symptoms of their anxiety, compared to those with only generalized anxiety disorder. In further support of this pathway, research has shown that 75% of the time an anxiety disorder is present in an individual before a substance use disorder develops (Smith & Book, 2008). However, Kushner, Krueger, Frye, and Peterson (2008) note that this does not demonstrate the anxiety disorder caused the comorbid substance use disorder in these 75% of cases, nor that the substance use disorder caused the anxiety disorder in the remaining 25%; it is merely a

(American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2013) Social anxiety differs from generalized anxiety due to the fixating on the judgement of their peers and performance in a social setting. (APA, 2013) Buckner et al., 2008 described the co-morbidity of alcohol use disorders with social anxiety as “a unique risk factor; adolescents diagnosed with social anxiety disorder at baseline were 4.5 times more likely to meet alcohol dependent criteria 14 years later than individuals without social anxiety disorder.” (Ham et al., 2016) The high number of undergraduates diagnosed with SAD as well as the high prognosis of co-morbid alcohol related disorders argues the importance of determining the casual relationship. However, further research is needed to identify the impact of alcohol on the risk of the vulnerable group of SAD

In a research done by Brown, Vik, McQuoid, & Patterson, (1990). They examine the relationship between stressful life events, and drinking among 129 male alcoholics who had completed an alcohol treatment program. Studies found that men who returned to drinking after treatment, experienced more severe or highly threatening stress before their relapse, than men who remained abstinent during the follow-up period. This data suggests that although less severe stress may not increase risk for relapse, acute severe stressors and highly threatening chronic difficulties may be associated with elevated relapse risk. In another research done by Sinha et al., (2009) evidence indicates that regular and chronic alcohol use is associated with changes in emotion, stress, and motivational pathways. These

The authors claimed that there was no correlation between alcohol abuse and anxiety disorder, however they argue that many other studies support this idea and that they sample of individuals addicted to alcohol is small. Such generalization makes the reader of the study question the researcher’s validity.

A study investigated the connection between alcohol expectancy and consumption and found that individuals who expected to have a high negative arousal after consumption ended up having more alcohol related problems than someone who expected to have a low negative arousal (Morean, Corbin & Treat, 2012). Although the study used various scales to examine how expectancies were related to alcohol consumption, it did not examine AmED

Coping motives involve drinking to avoid the experience of negative emotions such as depression or anxiety. This is the most potential mediator that lies between social anxiety and alcohol use. Several studies have found a significant positive relationship between these variables and a strong association with alcohol-related problems for high and moderate level of social anxiety (Ham et al., 2007; Martens et al., 2008; Clerkin & Barnett, 2012). Students, especially first year undergraduates, were among the most vulnerable group who often experience unpleasant feelings with their seniors and surroundings and able to drink more frequently to get rid of feeling depressed and stress (Lewis et al., 2008). In other word, it could refer to as drinking to cope with fear or stress, avoidance, or

Dependency and the consequences on various areas of life (such as loss of a job, financial strain, and relationship problems) continue to increase the environmental stressors. The individual uses avoidant coping and resorts to alcohol as a way to reduce the stress. Further, diminished drinking refusal self - efficacy impacts the person’s ability to use self-regulatory mechanisms that non-dependent drinkers use to minimize their drinking temptations. Other factors such as family, co-morbid psychological problems and other negative psychosocial influences may also play a role in determining choice to drink alcohol either directly or through the moderating effects of the alcohol

Thus, Schry and White (2013) hypothesized that social anxiety would be significantly positively related to both positive and negative alcohol expectancies, which was supported by the findings. Taken into account the association exist between social anxiety and drinking motives, social anxiety were seen to be significantly and positively related with both social drinking motive (expectation to deliver desired outcome) and coping drinking motive (concern about negative outcome) (Strahan et al., 2011; Schry & White, 2013; Grant, Brown, & Moreno, 2013; Terlecki & Buckner, 2015); hence justified the potentiality of alcohol expectancies as mediators of the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol

The first symptom that shows when people who abuses alcohol have a complicated social life. Alcoholics tend to have difficult and distant relations with their career, friends, and family. Drinking alcohol effects people’s social behavior by increases their aggression, self-disclosure, sexual curiosity, etc. People who are alcoholic usually have major effects on their love ones, which could lead to hurting people they care about. Another result on alcoholism is having termination from a job because they are either drunk or hung over, leaving

Substances, such as alcohol, are used for a variety of different reasons. Alcohol is often used as a way to celebrate a special occasion. It can also be used to help an individual “take the edge off” when he or she is feeling overwhelmed. Many individuals use alcohol when gathered with others in a social setting, while others may drink alcohol when spending time alone. The use of alcohol can become a problem when the individual begins to face challenges in his or her daily life. Some of these challenges can include increasing problems with emotional or physical health, the ability to maintain a steady job, and a steady withdrawal from family and friends.

Two million people are estimated to die each year all over the world from alcohol related complications (World Health Organisation, 2011). With its numerous associations with risky and aggressive behaviours, irresponsible sexual behaviours, crime, increased likelihood of traffic accidents, health complications, mental health problems and mental disorders (Bruin, 2014), alcohol consumption could result in a large amount of severe implications on numerous lives. This is a serious social problem, and a public health issue, which places a heavy burden on the society, and affects a large number of individuals of all ages (Drink aware, 2011).

According to Roberts, W., Miller, M. A., Weafer, J., & Fillmore, M. T. (2014), these researchers carried out a research on how alcohol inhibits one’s attention control. These researchers used a group of healthy social drinkers to carry out their research. The healthy social drinkers in this experiment were required to remain attentive in carrying out various tasks by inhibiting different inhibitory factors that affect one’s attention in doing something. It was found that people who drank alcohol heavily were not able to control their social attention. That is, these people were easily distracted by different stimuli especially alcohol-related stimuli. On the other hand, people who used alcohol less often or who did not use it at all were able to control their social attention in doing something. That is, they were not easily distracted by various stimuli.