Why We Use Alcohol to Enhance Our Experiences
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Alcohol instantly changes our mood, so we use it to enhance regular experiences and make them amazing. It manufactures fun and connection, so why eat outside with your friends and have a regular experience when you could eat outside with your friends and have an amazing experience? Same thing for vacations, it makes it appear like your vacation is fancier and more fun.
Why alcohol seems to make things better
Alcohol causes a big boost of serotonin and dopamine making you feel happier and more excited. It calms down your anxieties and insecurities, making you feel more confident and cool. These are all facts, but if you’re someone who can’t have 1 drink and move on with their lives then alcohol makes your mood swing hard in the original direction after you’re done drinking, meaning lower self-esteem, more anxiety, more depression, and more shame.
Learn more about why we want to use alcohol to enhance things in episode 103
What to listen to next:
E84: Does Alcohol Really Taste Good and Feel Pleasurable?
E79: Why We Romanticize Alcohol
E22: Why You Think Alcohol Helps Your Anxiety
E64: Anxiety and Alcohol (Part 2)
E76: Learning the Truth About Your Drinking with Dr. Anna Lembke, Author of Dopamine Nation
E100: [Special] Dr. Lembke Returns to Discuss Radical Honesty and Self-Awareness
FAQs on Enhancement Drinking
Why do I see alcohol as a reward?
Marketing has made us believe that alcohol is essential for fun and good times. TV and movies show us that when a character is celebrating, they toast with champagne, so then we don’t think we can go on vacation, go to a wedding, or celebrate our birthday without alcohol.
How do you replace alcohol as a reward?
The goal is that eventually your life is the reward, not the 1 or 2 hour escape that alcohol provides. I used to require a big celebration for everything, even minor things in my life, but now that I’m sober my life is the reward and I don’t feel compelled to celebrate every little thing.
If you are struggling with this, then some alcohol-free rewards could be getting a massage, getting a mani/pedi, taking a day trip, getting your favorite food for dinner, going to your favorite restaurant, taking a day off work, vegging on the couch all day and watching an entire season of a TV show.
How do I lose my desire for alcohol?
This takes time, but your desire for alcohol will fade as you proof to yourself that you don’t “need” it to have fun, socialize, cope, wind down, or anything else. Experiencing life without alcohol is a must. You don’t have to do it alone though, there are many people out there just like you that are living their best lives without alcohol.
Sources
Dvorak RD, Kuvaas NJ, Lamis DA, Pearson MR, Stevenson BL. Emotionally Up and Down, Behaviorally To and Fro: Drinking Motives Mediate the Synergistic Effects of Urgency and Emotional Instability on Alcohol Outcomes. J Drug Educ. 2015;45(3-4):156-184.
Merrill JE, Read JP. Motivational pathways to unique types of alcohol consequences. Psychol Addict Behav. 2010;24(4):705-711. doi:10.1037/a0020135
Sayette, M. The effects of alcohol on emotion in social drinkers. Behav Res Ther. 2018
Birch, C. The mood-induced activation of implicit alcohol cognition in enhancement and coping motivated drinkers. Addictive Behaviors. 33:4. 2008
Cite this episode
Tietz, G. Episode 103: Why We Use Alcohol to Enhance Our Experiences. Sober Powered. 2022.
