Keys To Recovery Interview
I was delighted to be asked and honored to take part in one of the excellent “The Hope Interviews” with Steve Jones for the recovery newspaper “Keys to Recovey”
The role of emotion processing deficits in alcohol dependence and relapse.
This study looks at an area close to our research hearts. The role of emotion processing deficits in alcohol dependence and relapse. It is a good overview of some of the literature. The underlying mechanism which prompts relapse is not unearthed in this study. You may have to […]
Insecure Attachment Styles and Lack of Emotion Regulation Prompt Defense Mechanisms?
In Recovery circles and groups we are often struck by the common use of ego defense mechanisms in negotiating social interactions. We have often queried why such a common use of these maladaptive means of regulating one’s emotions and one’s self, if you like, when interacting with others? […]
Why Do Gamblers Chase Losses?
Loss-Chasing, Alexithymia, and Impulsivity in a Gambling Task: Alexithymia as a Precursor to Loss-Chasing Behavior When Gambling This was the subject matter of my PhD when I was a PhD candidate. Essentially a couple of my experiments proposed to examine if there was a link between alexithymia […]
Repressed Coping and Alexithymia
Throughout many of our blogs we have suggested that people suffering with addictive behaviours suffer from emotion processing (alexithymia and emotional awareness difficulties) and regulation deficits. We have suggested these may not only be genetically inherited but mainly the consequence of adverse childhood experiences or maltreatment. Our sister […]
This Emotional Disease?
Part 2 A Brief History of Addiction as Affective Disorder Cheetham and others are not the first, however, to suggest an affect centred view of addiction. Rado in 1933, described substance use as a way of coping with excessively difficult states of emotions (3). Others have interpreted addiction […]
In Modern Terms, What is the “Spiritual Malady” of AA?
The principles of the programme of Alcoholics Anonymous are scientific and closely follow all the helping therapies which lead people to emotional well-being.
Insecure attachment affects emotion regulation in alcoholics?
I have blogged recently about how insecure attachment is linked to various addictive behaviours. What is important is to establish a mechanism by which insecure attachment contributes to later addictive disorders. It may not be enough to say attachment and addiction are linked but that they are linked via a […]
Ruminating on emotions rather than processing them.
This study (1) is an excellent one which looks at both emotion processing deficits and also emotional dysregulation in eating disorders. It also importantly demonstrates how these are mediated by distress. This is an important aspect to our conceptualisation of addictive behaviours. We suggest that if emotions are […]
The Predictive Value of Alexithymia in Patients with Eating Disorders
Here we look at emotion processing deficits in eating disorders and whether the extent of these difficulties can predict treatment outcome three years later. This would demonstrate the ongoing role of emotion processing, as conceptualised as alexithymia, plays an ongoing role in the pathomechanism driving eating disorders. This […]
Inside The Alcoholic Brain 
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