Willpower & Problem Drinking

Willpower refers to the ability to act as intended despite the influence of local stressors and temptations. Intentional action is a tricky concept, especially when the intention is to control alcohol intake. Consider the paradoxes of control:

The Paradoxes of Control

• Paradox 1: Using alcohol to control experience results in the loss of control over alcohol use: The motivation to increase pleasure and decrease pain is fundamental and universal. The discovery that drinking alcohol can produce immediate pleasure or relief gives an individual a way to cope with day to day difficulties. Anything capable of delivering such a desirable payoff can corrupt the soul. Alcohol is so effective in helping some people control their experience that they lose control of their alcohol consumption.

• Paradox 2: Because controlling alcohol intake seems so trivial a challenge, most problem drinkers do not invest the effort required to succeed, and end up relapsing: It is possible to exercise will, even in the presence of great stress and temptation, but doing so requires considerable preparation. Shallow attempts to control drinking through "willpower" often produce the spectacular failures that discredit the concept of willpower. Lack of respect for what is required to act as intended during a crisis is the primary cause of failure of will.

• Paradox 3: Depending on an external agent to free you from dependence on alcohol promotes dependence: When you act counter to your intentions, you weaken the power of future intentions to influence action. Loss of control occurs when alcohol consumption is dependent upon local conditions rather than upon your intentions. Demoralizing relapses may motivate the individual (or loved ones) to give up and seek an external agent who can produce the intended outcome. Consider treatment strategies based on the medical model, in which the problem drinker is urged to accept powerlessness over a disease and to accept the patient role as recipient of the treatment: The strategies and goals are selected by an external agent [treatment provider, self-help group]. This approach, most closely associated with 12-Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, is well matched with physically dependent alcoholics and many non-physically dependent problem drinkers. However, it provides a poor match for some high-functioning problem drinkers.

Treatment Matching

While the challenge is great, you are not the first one to face it. Methods to develop the skills and faculties that enable one to perform as intended in the face of crisis have been practiced throughout history. Tools and experiential exercises described by early philosophers and modern cognitive and neural scientists can enable problem drinkers to complete an important developmental passage: From dependence to self-determination.

This web site contains methods and opportunities to explore and manipulate subjective phenomena including perception, emotion, and motivation. The goal is for you to develop the capability to intentionally influence your subjective reality during the critical moments when you are at risk of relapse. With some preparation, high-functioning problem drinkers can develop the requisite skills and faculties to change course and follow their path of greatest advantage rather than to continue to yield in the direction of least resistance.

This, like any path to personal transformation, is better matched with some individuals than with others. After reviewing the text and trying out some of the experiential exercises, you will be able to judge whether this approach is well matched to you. If it is, the complete self-directed kit:The Path of Greatest Advantage will be worthy of your consideration. Professional consultation is available by phone, email, and secure chat; or in person at the home office of our clinical practice in Austin, Texas. For more information, please call our office (512) 343-8307.

For information about the exercise of will as a path to recovery from an addictive disorder, please click here.	For access to the self-directed program guide and trance formative audio files, please click here.

"To be 'cured' against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will."