EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL AND LOSS OF CONTROL ON ANXIETY LEVEL OF ADOLESCENTS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Even though depression and anxiety are highly prevalent in adolescence, youngsters are not inclined to seek help in regular healthcare. Therapy through the Internet, however, has been found to appeal strongly to young people. Sometimes people use alcohol or other drugs to cope with their anxiety. This is often called ‘self-medication’. While alcohol or other drug use may provide short-term relief from anxiety, in the long-term, it can actually make the anxiety worse as alcohol or other drug use can cause anxiety. People also often feel anxious when they are craving alcohol, tobacco or other drugs, or when they are coming down or withdrawing from alcohol or other drugs. This can lead to a cycle where the anxiety and alcohol or other drug use feed o each other. Some people find that they develop alcohol or other drug problems because they feel that they need to drink greater amounts more frequently to cope with their anxiety. The relationship between anxiety and alcohol use is a topic of great theoretical and practical interest for both scientists interested in the nature and causes of psychopathology and practitioners working with anxious and/or alcohol abusing clients. Although it has been clearly established that anxiety disorders and alcohol use disorders are highly ‘‘comorbid’’ or co-occurring conditions (e.g., see Kushner, Abrams & Borchardt, 2013 for a review), the relationship between the symptoms or behaviors involved in each disorder (e.g., feelings of anxiety and levels of alcohol use) has not been as extensively reviewed. Anxiety and alcohol use can both be characterized at two different levels: symptomatic and syndromal. An association at the former level would entail a clear relationship, for example, between feelings of anxiety and drinking behavior. That is, one would expect that higher levels of anxiety would be related to higher quantities and/or frequency of drinking behavior. Persons (2010) describes the advantages of studying psychological phenomena at the symptomatic level rather than at the diagnostic category (or syndromal) level. The symptom approach allows for study of important phenomena that may be ignored by examining only the diagnostic category in question. For example, level of alcohol consumption is not considered in the diagnosis of alcohol abuse or dependence according to the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2012), although there have been some recommendations for incorporating heavy drinking behaviors in the diagnostic definitions in future editions (Helzer, Bucholz, & Bierut, 2009).