Alcohol myopia
Encyclopedia
Alcohol myopia is a cognitive-physiological theory on alcohol abuse
in which many of alcohol
's social and stress
-reducing effects, which may underlie its addictive
capacity, are explained as a consequence of alcohol's narrowing of perceptual and cognitive functioning.
It has three central traits:
Alcohol abuse
Alcohol abuse, as described in the DSM-IV, is a psychiatric diagnosis describing the recurring use of alcoholic beverages despite negative consequences. Alcohol abuse eventually progresses to alcoholism, a condition in which an individual becomes dependent on alcoholic beverages in order to avoid...
in which many of alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
's social and stress
Stress (medicine)
Stress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...
-reducing effects, which may underlie its addictive
Substance use disorder
Substance use disorders include substance abuse and substance dependence. In DSM-IV, the conditions are formally diagnosed as one or the other, but it has been proposed that DSM-5 combine the two into a single condition called "Substance-use disorder"....
capacity, are explained as a consequence of alcohol's narrowing of perceptual and cognitive functioning.
It has three central traits:
- Drunken Excess: the tendency for those who drink to behave more excessively.
- Self-Inflation: the tendency to inflate self-evaluations.
- Drunken Relief: the tendency for people who drink to worry less and pay less attention to their worries.