Amber Hollingsworth argues alcohol becomes addictive primarily because of social reinforcement and peer pressure rather than solely its pharmacology. She explains how marketing and early socialization create expectations and a placebo-like response, describes clients' fear of social judgment when they stop drinking (which often proves unfounded), and challenges viewers to honestly weigh pros and cons and to self-assess problematic drinking via a recommended follow-up video.
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The reason alcohol is so addictive, it's because of the social reinforcement. It is literally the only drug that you're going to feel embarrassed about not doing. Now, of course, the marketing companies make it seem cool, sexy, and exciting. But even more of an issue than that is the peer pressure. From a very early age, we're getting messages that this is what adults do to have fun. This is what will make you a cool, exciting person that other people want to be around. And so we start believing that long before we ever even try it. And there's a placebo effect connected with alcohol, for sure. Remember when you very first started to drink alcohol and you didn't like it and it tasted nasty, but everyone around you was telling you, you're gonna like it and it's gonna be great, and they look like they're having fun, so then you start acting like you're having fun with it from the beginning. It's being reinforced from almost every single direction. My clients that decide to stop drinking alcohol, sure, they're worried about, you know, like, not having the alcohol and cravings and withdrawal and stuff like that. But you know what they worry about most? They mostly worry about what other people are gonna think about the fact that they don't drink anymore. They actually agonize over other people. And the craziest thing about it is alcohol actually does, like, the exact opposite of what we think it's gonna do. Doesn't make you smarter, doesn't make you make better decisions, doesn't make you more attractive. Although I'll admit, it will make you think that you're those things. Think about it. You actually have to, like, work into liking alcohol. You have to make yourself drink it long enough till you do start to like it. You know that instinct you had when you first put it in your mouth? That instinct to spit it out because it tasted nasty? That's because it's actually a poison. But because we're convinced that it's going to make our life so much better and funner, we won't be boring, and we'll be exciting. We choose to do it anyway. So I challenge you to ask yourself this. Is alcohol really doing for you what you want it to do for you? Seriously, sit down and write out the pros and cons. Just because everyone around you says it's great and wonderful doesn't necessarily mean that it is. It's kind of interesting that all my clients, the ones that are so worried about telling people that they don't drink anymore, once they do work up the courage to tell people that they don't drink anymore. What they find is all those people that they thought were going to judge them seem actually really interested in why that they quit, and they actually seem kind of proud of them, and they actually start confiding in them that they kind of want to quit and cut down, too. But they've been too afraid to even say that to anyone else because there's such a stigma against not drinking. Now, if you're worried that you're drinking or a loved one's drinking has gotten to the point that it might even be alcoholism, I want you to watch this video next because it's going to explain to you exactly what alcoholism is in a way that you can actually diagnose the severity of the problem for yourself.
