CRITICAL REVIEW OF DRINKING MOTIVES BETWEEN SOCIAL ANXIETY AND ALCOHOL USE

Drinking alcohol becomes a trend when social fear becomes a threat. The relaxing effect of alcohol on the central nervous system, its unconstrained and empowering effects of social impulses, and its perceived beneficial or recovery action on physical and emotional pain are often suggested as reasons why people begin and maintain their drinking behavior, despite knowing its abuse, potential side effects, and medium- to long-term ill effects on health. The purpose of this review is to address the role of drinking motives in predicting alcohol use among normal and socially anxious population and its mediating effect in the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol use. Variables analyzed included prevalence, gender, personality trait, drinking motives, and self-medication hypothesis. Through this paper, a brief understanding gained into how people with and without social anxiety caters their fear to events that challenges their social image. It is highly suggestible that social anxiety has a positive relationship with alcohol use; which mediated by drinking motives, particularly, social, conformity and coping motives. Self-medication hypothesis too were found to be playing a major role in predicting alcohol consumption, especially among people who were tending to drink to cope with unpleasant emotions both before and after the social events. It has been seen more common among women than their opposite sex as women react more intensely to emotional stimuli than men. Even though this review paper gave a unique glimpse on the association between social anxiety, drinking motives and alcohol use; the interaction between these variable with genders and alcohol-related components (as mentioned in the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test) are remaining complex and inconclusive. Future research is necessary to determine how this knowledge can be incorporated into prevention and intervention programs for the group at-risk