Alexithymia, reward sensitivity and risky drinking: the role of internal drinking motives

Abstract

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Attachment Style, Early Childhood Trauma, Alexithymia, and Dissociation Among Persons Addicted to Alcohol: Structural Equation Model of Dependencies

“…In both types of attachments, disorders in the development of emotional regulation processes are slightly different, and the characteristics of alexithymia also differ (Bermond, 1997). The regulatory role of alexithymia in coping with stress and negative affect is indicated in the results of the study by Lyvers et al (2018a), as well as its role in the intensification of emotional sensations under the influence of alcohol (Thorberg et al, 2016). The context in which the deficits described under the concept of alexithymia develop determines the form of the disorder and defines which dominating emotions become disturbed and distorted.…”

“…The essence of development processes is the fact that both the development of competences and their absence, i.e., inadaptation, result from the same transaction and cumulative processes, which take place in the course of individual development (Yates et al, 2011). A number of researchers, who investigate alcohol addictions (e.g., Martinotti et al, 2008Martinotti et al, , 2009Cierpiałkowska, 2010;Ryszkowski et al, 2015;Lyvers et al, 2018a), emphasize that alcohol addictions result from an individual's disorder, i.e., emotional immaturity, and alcohol may constitute the means to handle difficult situations. As appears from the above, essential for dependence/addiction are mechanisms responsible for the release of craving or the modulation of desire and craving in such a manner that the process is regulated by other mental processes or blocked by those processes (Martinotti et al, 2008;Thorberg et al, 2011).…”

Resilience, alexithymia, and university stress in relation to anxiety and problematic alcohol use among female university students

“…Alexithymia has been consistently linked to risky or problematic drinking in university, community and clinical samples (Cruise & Becerra, 2018;Lyvers, Simons, Hayes, & Thornberg, 2014;Thorberg et al, 2009), as well as the use of alcohol as an avoidant coping strategy to suppress negative affect (Bruce, Curren, & Williams, 2012;Corbin et al, 2013;Coriale et al, 2012;Lyvers, Coundouris, Edwards, & Thorberg, 2018). Like hazardous drinking, anxiety also shows high prevalence among Australian university students compared to the general population (Bitsika, Sharpley, & Peters, 2010), has a positive association with university-related stress (Pidgeon, McGrath, et al, 2014;Pidgeon, Rowe, et al, 2014) as well as alexithymia (Lyvers, Coundouris, et al, 2018;Lyvers, Hanigan, & Thorberg, 2018), and is negatively related to resilience (Bacchi & Licinio, 2017). Like hazardous drinking, anxiety also shows high prevalence among Australian university students compared to the general population (Bitsika, Sharpley, & Peters, 2010), has a positive association with university-related stress (Pidgeon, McGrath, et al, 2014;Pidgeon, Rowe, et al, 2014) as well as alexithymia (Lyvers, Coundouris, et al, 2018;Lyvers, Hanigan, & Thorberg, 2018), and is negatively related to resilience (Bacchi & Licinio, 2017).…”

“…Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT; Saunders, Aasland, Babor, De La Fuente, & Grant, 1993) scores. Alexithymia has been consistently linked to risky or problematic drinking in university, community and clinical samples (Cruise & Becerra, 2018;Lyvers, Simons, Hayes, & Thornberg, 2014;Thorberg et al, 2009), as well as the use of alcohol as an avoidant coping strategy to suppress negative affect (Bruce, Curren, & Williams, 2012;Corbin et al, 2013;Coriale et al, 2012;Lyvers, Coundouris, Edwards, & Thorberg, 2018). Alexithymic students are likely to lack sufficient emotional self-regulation and social resources to foster resilience, and thus may be especially vulnerable to university stress and its adverse outcomes such as problematic drinking or persistent anxiety.…”

“…Alexithymic students are likely to lack sufficient emotional self-regulation and social resources to foster resilience, and thus may be especially vulnerable to university stress and its adverse outcomes such as problematic drinking or persistent anxiety. Like hazardous drinking, anxiety also shows high prevalence among Australian university students compared to the general population (Bitsika, Sharpley, & Peters, 2010), has a positive association with university-related stress (Pidgeon, McGrath, et al, 2014;Pidgeon, Rowe, et al, 2014) as well as alexithymia (Lyvers, Coundouris, et al, 2018;Lyvers, Hanigan, & Thorberg, 2018), and is negatively related to resilience (Bacchi & Licinio, 2017). Based on the crucial roles of emotion self-regulation skills and social support in fostering resilience, the present study examined resilience in relation to alexithymia, university-related stress, and two common outcomes of stress -problematic drinking and anxiety -in a sample of female university students.…”