Understanding alcoholics’ “difficulty in life”: An empirical comparison of alcoholics and nonalcoholics

Keiko Ito

doi:10.9741/23736658.1050

Abstract

The Japanese success rate for alcoholism treatment is approximately 30%, indicating high relapse rates. Although “difficulty in life” is thought to contribute to alcoholics’ relapse, the characteristics of the phenomenon are unknown. This study examined the factors contributing to alcoholics’ difficulty in life. Alcoholic self-help group members, who indicated the extent of their difficulty in life and described the factors that contributed to this difficulty, completed a self-administered questionnaire. Participants’ hypersensitivity/grandiosity traits were also examined. A control group of nonalcoholic men also completed the questionnaire. Simple tabulation, descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U tests, and multivariate analyses were used to compare data between groups. Ultimately, 574 and 512 valid responses were received from the alcoholic (response rate: 27.1%) and nonalcoholic (response rate: 33.1%) groups, respectively. The proportion of alcoholics (54%) who indicated that they found life difficult was significantly higher relative to that of nonalcoholics (39.9%). Alcoholics’ mean hypersensitivity score was significantly higher (2.67) relative to that observed for nonalcoholics (2.44). Significant between-group differences were observed for the following factors: building and maintaining relationships, satisfaction with life, self-distrust, cognitive bias, loneliness, empathic understanding, and self-acceptance. Multivariate logistic regression identified cognitive bias and building and maintaining relationships as factors contributing to alcoholics’ difficulty in life. Alcoholics’ social contexts, including broken families, social instability, and cross addiction, also contributed to this difficulty. Personal characteristics, such as hypersensitive-type narcissistic tendencies, relationship problems, and cognitive bias, were also associated with alcoholics’ difficulty in life.

Highlights

The Japanese success rate for alcoholism treatment is approximately 30%, indicating high relapse rates
Alcoholism—which is defined as dependency on or addiction to the consumption of alcoholic drinks—results in numerous health problems, which incur high medical costs, and the proportion of Japanese hospital admissions that are related to alcohol is estimated at 14.7% (Tsunoda, 1994); alcohol-related disorders and alcoholism are major social issues
Odds ratios were calculated for the occurrence of each item for both groups, and the results showed that, relative to participants in the nonalcoholic group, alcoholic individuals were 12.2 times more likely to be pathological liars, 10.5 times more likely to have verbally or physically abused their spouses, 9.5 times more likely to have experienced drug addiction, 8.4 times more likely to have experienced love addiction, and 8.2 times more likely to have experienced sex addiction

Summary

Introduction

The Japanese success rate for alcoholism treatment is approximately 30%, indicating high relapse rates. Alcoholics’ social contexts, including broken families, social instability, and cross addiction, contributed to this difficulty Personal characteristics, such as hypersensitive-type narcissistic tendencies, relationship problems, and cognitive bias, were associated with alcoholics’ difficulty in life. A nationwide survey conducted in 2003 to improve understanding of drinking in Japanese adults found that the drinking habits of 4.8% of men and 0.5% of women were classified as harmful alcohol use, and 1.9% of men and 0.1% of women were considered alcoholics (Osaki, Matsushita, Shirasaka, Hisanori, & Higuchi, 2005). Based on these proportions, Japan contains an estimated 810,000 alcoholics.

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