Introduction

Excerpted from Chapter One: Theories of Addiction and Implications for Counselling in Alcohol & Drug Problems: A Practical Guide For Counsellors

In this section:

• Focus and terminology
• Biological factors
• Psychological factors
• Social-environmental factors
• An integrated biopsychosocial perspective
  • Some implications for counselling

Many theorists have tried to account for why people use alcohol and other drugs, and especially why they continue or relapse despite negative consequences. Some theories suggest genetic and other biological factors, while others emphasize personality factors or social-environmental factors (Lettieri et al., 1980). While these factors have all been shown to contribute to persistent substance use and to relapse following periods of abstinence, no one set of factors can account for all types of substance use. Rather, substance use appears to result from complex interactions of biological, psychological and social-environmental structures and processes (Arif & Westermeyer, 1988).

This chapter outlines these factors and the ways in which they may interact. Some implications for counselling will also be considered. The focus is on factors that account for why substance use continues once it has started, and why people relapse following periods of abstinence. (Some of these factors also account for why people begin substance use, but that is not the subject of this chapter.)

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