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When all things are considered, changing drinking behaviors begins with motivation. The problem is alcohol can alter motivation so that you want to drink more instead of less.
What You’ll Learn:
• Why interventions often make little difference if a person isn’t internally motivated.
• The connection between dopamine and motivation that gets derailed by alcohol.
• How external locus of control impacts motivation and the risk of alcoholism.
• Why hitting rock bottom is often the motivation for change.
• How improvements can become motivation to keep making progress.
• How naltrexone gets people motivated to cut back or stop drinking.
Bottomline - if someone doesn’t really want to change a behavior then they won’t change it. Period. Never has that been truer than in the case of alcohol use.
There are various factors at play, but as anyone will learn in Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon or by examining exhaustive research data, a person has to be internally motivated to stop or significantly reduce their drinking.
But motivation is the first step. There are solutions like naltrexone medication that can help keep someone motivated to make the real change that lasts long-term.
Interventions Are an Example That Motivation is More Important Than Anything Else
When an intervention is organized to address someone’s drinking and get them into a formal rehab program, it indicates that alcohol use has reached a really unhealthy level.
Most people think that a person is highly motivated to go to rehab after family and friends hold an intervention. It’s understandable to think that the person would have a better chance of getting and staying sober when they have so much support.
While an intervention can increase the odds that a person will get professional help, interventions often don’t lead to long-term recovery. The primary reason comes down to the motivation for going to rehab.
The reality is many people agree to go to rehab during an intervention because they are feeling pressure or guilty in the moment.
Instead of feeling internal motivation, some people will even feel anger and resentment, seeing the intervention as a confrontation or attack.
It isn’t an internal force motivating them to seek out help and get control over their drinking.
When true motivation isn’t there the person has a higher likelihood of simply going through the motions and then going right back to drinking soon after leaving rehab.
Here’s how Character-Medicine40, a Reddit contributor in the AlAnon community, put it, “I’m a former alcoholic and you just don’t change until you lose everything and WANT to change.
There was no amount of family interventions that would’ve ever helped until I wanted it for myself.”
External motivations can sometimes help someone reach long-term recovery, but it’s far from a given.
When interventions do work it’s often because loved ones have expressed their boundaries and consequences if the person doesn’t choose to go to rehab.
For example, a spouse may state that they will file for divorce unless the individual agrees to go to rehab. That consequence could be the motivating factor that a person needs to decide it’s time to get help.
Dopamine is the Motivation Hormone That Gets Hijacked by Alcohol
Many people know dopamine as the “feel good hormone.” In actuality, dopamine is the driver of motivation, which is why it’s now described as the “molecule of more.”
We all have a natural baseline of dopamine that’s maintained by the nervous system. If you experience something rewarding it causes dopamine to spike.
When something triggers the release of dopamine it’s not just about a sense of pleasure in the moment. Dopamine creates a sense of anticipation and craving for that thing. That’s what motivates us to seek out the dopamine trigger again.
Here’s the big problem with alcohol’s effect on dopamine - it creates an unnatural spike in dopamine that’s temporary. Then dopamine comes crashing down below the baseline level.
Continued use of alcohol creates a cycle of artificially spiking and then dropping dopamine levels lower and lower. It’s a downward spiral. At the same time, the brain is being trained to associate alcohol with the pleasurable effects of dopamine.
That becomes a motivating factor to drink again.
But because dopamine levels keep dropping and the brain adapts to the presence of alcohol, you have to drink more to feel the same effects as before. This is what’s known as tolerance.
Eventually you’ll reach a reward deficit state. This is when dopamine levels are so low when a person is sober that they experience depression and bad moods that further motivate them to drink in order to feel normal.
How External Locus of Control Impact Motivation and Alcohol Use
Something that has a huge bearing on motivation is our sense of control over a situation. When a person has an external locus of control they are less likely to feel motivated to make improvements. Why?
Because they feel like it’s largely out of their control.
An external locus of control is a belief that forces outside of ourselves control what happens to us. When we feel like we don’t have control our motivation takes a nosedive.
We’re more likely to simply give in and give up because we feel like our efforts won’t make much of a difference anyway.
A recent research study showed that alcoholics are more likely to have an external locus of control. As a result, it was concluded that strengthening self-efficacy and a sense of personal control is an important part of rehabilitation.
Hitting Rock Bottom is a Powerful Motivator
It’s very common to hear people with alcohol use disorder say that hitting rock bottom is what motivated them to finally quit drinking. Experiencing a profound loss gave them the motivation to finally make necessary changes.
This is one of the clearest signs that internal motivation is the key to drinking less. By the time someone reaches rock bottom, loved ones have usually expressed their concerns.
They’ve already experienced some setbacks from drinking that they were able to manage. They already know that alcohol can have negative consequences.
But those external factors didn’t motivate them enough. It was only when they experienced something that had a hugely negative impact on their life that they decided for themselves to make the change.
Second-Wave Motivation: The Gains From Drinking Less Are a Serious Motivator to Keep Going
The amazing thing about making the choice to get alcohol use under control and actually taking action to do so is that it reinforces your motivation.
We can’t express how often we hear clients say that the gains they make on our naltrexone therapy program becomes a newfound motivating factor on their journey.
And people in our Iceberg Alcohol Program have an additional motivating factor.
In addition to drinking fewer alcoholic beverages and feeling the positive effects on their physical and mental health, the program includes at-home liver testing that provides a measurable metric for the health improvements.
Seeing those numbers improve is powerfully motivating.
Apps that track alcohol use are another great tool that can increase your motivation to stick with it. You can use them to get a better understanding of what motivates you to drink while also tracking progress, which motivates you to drink less.
Choose Your Horizon keeps thousands of patients motivated to change their lives for the better every day. Our telehealth platform was built to provide people with essential support whenever they make the decision to take control of their drinking.
Online naltrexone prescriptions, virtual consultations with clinicians, structured programs and an interactive app are all available.
Naltrexone is particularly beneficial if you want to cut back because motivation alone isn’t usually the answer. Even if you want to change your relationship with alcohol, cravings can make it very difficult.
Naltrexone has been shown to blunt alcohol’s effect on dopamine so that you crave alcohol less and are less motivated to drink.
Get motivated to improve your overall wellbeing - start with the Alcohol Use Assessment for personalized recommendations and next steps.
