Alcoholic denial: a biopsychological interpretation.

Working the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous with a Client

“…Alcoholism is considered a "disease of denial," but this denial may not be as simple as the intention to deceive. Tarter, Alterman, and Edwards (1984) note that alcoholics are physiologically unstable in arousal regulation and cannot cognitively discriminate interoceptive cues or physiological states, which produces a tendency to minimize emotionally laden events in their lives. Consequently, when recovering individuals are unable to begin working the steps, or become confused when they do, they may need gentle nurturance and encouragement; the inability to work the steps should not automatically be equated with a lack of willingness.…”

Transcending Alcoholic Denial

“…Explanations for the etiology of alcoholic denial have been offered by various disciplines. For example, denial has been viewed as a biological defect (Alterman, 1981;Tarter, Alterman & Edwards, 1984); as a psychological defense mechanism (Anderson, 1981); as a cultural and anthropological phenomenon (Denzin, 1987); and as a sociological interpersonal process (Brissett, 1988). Within the domain of nursing practice, denial is interpreted as a healthy coping mechanism that assists the patient to adapt to a threatening situation (Forchuk & Westwall, 1987).…”

The Discriminant Validity of Alcohol Use Disorder in Well-Functioning Men with Hazardous Alcohol Use

“…Also, there is a chance that, due to our sampling methods, we selected a special group of wine drinkers. Denial is traditionally considered a cardinal feature of alcoholism [38]. Therefore, it is possible that in the total population of well-functioning wine drinkers there are more alcoholics, and that we only selected the less severe part of the alcoholism spectrum because the more severe alcoholics were unwilling to participate in the study.…”