Why do people drink alcoholic beverages (beer, distilled spirits, or wine)? Positive reasons for drinking alcoholic beverages include: Celebrating significant occasions with friends or loved ones. Enhancing enjoyment of social activities and relaxation. Complementing certain meals. Participating in religious ceremonies. Enjoying the taste as a beverage of choice. Negative reasons for drinking alcoholic beverages include: Escaping from tension or worries. Blocking out painful feelings such as fear, loneliness, and self-doubt. Attempting to relate better to …showed first 75 words of 1870 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1870 total…and legal, financial, or spiritual problems. Denial is used here not only in the psychoanalytic sense of a single psychological defense mechanism disavowing the significance of events, but more broadly to include a range of psychological maneuvers designed to reduce awareness of the fact that alcohol use is the cause of an individual's problems rather than a solution to those problems. Denial becomes an integral part of the disease and a major obstacle to recovery.