ABSTRACT
There are, of course, many reasons why people drink alcohol – for pleasure, for courage, to help manage stress and social anxiety, to avoid difficult responsibilities, lack of parental supervision as a child, or perhaps it is part of expected social and peer group behaviour. However, the reasons why we start drinking alcohol regularly, may not be the reasons why we continue to drink. Where we can say that an emotional dependence on alcohol takes precedence over other people, and when the problem drinker or their partner and other family members want to change the quality of their lived emotional experience, we shall explore here how an integration of attachment thinking and systemic practice can both address and help bridge issues of trust and intimacy as a means of forging new emotional connections.
