Disintegration of the integrative personality system

The functioning of every healthy person revolves around a central centre integrating personal experiences, forming the structure of the Self (self), the self-image. When alcohol drinking occurs, abuse in quantity and frequency, then drinking becomes a source of significant personal experiences and thus influences the shape of the Self system, the self-image.

The most influence is found in the degree of coherence and integration of the Self, the valuing of the Self, the disposition and exercise of personal control.

Drinking alcohol disperses the boundaries of the Self, which thus becomes less clear and less compact. The experience with alcohol gives a sense of so-called 'departure' from the Self, current affairs, and problems become unreal, losing focus and thus less acute. This is not yet a problem when such states after alcohol happen occasionally. It is worse when the drinker experiences such states relatively frequently. This has a significant impact on the stability and compactness of the personality and the inner territory of identity and will.

Drinking alcohol leads to an increasingly deepening separation between the experiences of the sober state and the post-drinking state. This does not have a beneficial effect on building an integrated personality. The frequency of drinking results in the appearance of a polarisation of increasingly contrasting states, and the experiences associated with them are more intense and dramatic. There is a shift from one extreme to the other.

Another important aspect of the Self system, as mentioned earlier, is self-worth, self-esteem or self-worth. Given the frequency of drinking, we can speak of leading to repeated destructive situations and behaviours, and thus to a negative self-appraisal. No one who drinks excessively wants to be left with a negative self-image. There is a need or drive to value positively, to neutralise the unfavourable evaluation and even to create a positive counterbalance. Addicts do this with the help of alcohol. A tension is created in the structure of the alcoholic's Self between an extremely negative and an irrationally positive version of oneself. As a consequence, this leads to a deep distraction, a split. Asking himself the question: who am I? He does not find an adequate answer. The answer oscillates between I am good and I am bad.

The third aspect of the Self is related to the awareness of power, influence and control of one's situation. The focus of the alcoholic shifts to directly transforming his mental states with alcohol, gaining influence and control of his states.

By drinking alcohol, the addict experiences unpleasant emotional states and, at the same time, the possibility of relieving the negative consequences of his drinking and losing influence over his life and control over his own behaviour. The more consequences of drinking, the more difficulties in coping, the greater the need to drink. The effect of this is to create two poles in the personality: one focuses the experience of fascination with power and a sense of one's limitlessness, and the other is powerlessness, breakdown and enslavement. It is a state of split, a disintegration of the Self. It affects the decisions made, the choices made. The Self system does not act as a control centre. The alcoholic, however, seeks to unite these opposing poles of his or her own identity. An example of this might be the statement: "I am a master at falling to the bottom", "As much evil as I have done, no one has ever done before".
In a word, they try to turn evil into good or powerlessness into power. In general, this all takes place in a world of illusion and magical imagery.

When we talk about addiction, photo: panthermedia

All the things mentioned above can be greatly improved, neutralised, if therapy is undertaken. However, it takes a lot of effort on the part of the addict himself, a good therapeutic programme to cope with all this. The psychological mechanisms of alcohol addiction will subside after some time in therapy. The addicted person will no longer use these mechanisms and thus there will be an improvement in life without alcohol.

Summary

Looking at the psychological mechanisms of alcohol dependence not only opens up new insights into the emergence of addiction, but also into the way in which drug therapy is conducted. It commits to learning about these mechanisms in individual patients, disarming especially the mechanism of illusion and denial, dealing with feelings, not including alcohol as a regulator of feelings and acquiring an identity, improving the self-image. This can be done by means of a strategic-structural concept, among other things on the basis of the Personal Therapy Plan.

Article prepared for Psychiatria.pl