Addiction & The Locus of Control
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” - Rumi
The Locus of control is a psychological concept that refers to how strongly people believe they have control over the situations and experiences that affect their lives. People with a predominately “internal locus of control” generally believe that their success or failure is a result of the effort and hard work they invest in their lives. People with a predominately “external locus of control” generally believe that their successes or failures result from external factors beyond their control, such as luck, fate, circumstance, injustice, bias, or teachers who are unfair, prejudiced, or unskilled.
Reflection - Whilst you are reading this, take a few minutes to think about yourself and how you see this in your life. Which of these two aspects of the locus of control do you see more dominant in the differing areas of your life.
For a greater insight into this regarding addiction it is important to think beyond the conventional thinking around the locus of control and look at the projected beliefs a person has on the object of their addiction, whether this be a substance, medication, gambling, relationship etc. When we think about the creation and impact of addiction it is not hard to conclude that the locus of control has been impacted. The internal locus of control requires a resilience, belief in self and secure base. Some of which may never have been fully functioning and developed or impacted by lived experiences in addictions. This can leave an emptiness, a loss of sense of self, a sense of not belonging and much more. This brings us to the amplification of the importance of the external locus of control in relation to lack of the secure internal base. If you feel that you do not have the internal resilience, function or security to be in the world then rather than relying on the internal, the external becomes more crucial for a couple of key reasons:
1, The regulation of emotional states by managing the external environment - if you're ok, i’m ok.
2, The continued search for something external, akin to the developmental process in early years for a secure object relation and therefor a secure base in the world.
Why so difficult to separate in addiction?
“A person with an external locus of control, who attributes his or her success to luck or fate, will be less likely to make the effort needed to learn. People with an external locus of control are also more likely to experience anxiety since they believe that they are not in control of their lives” - Jerry Phares
The above quote highlights one fo the difficulties in the phase of making meaning and understanding addiction for anyone who wants to separate in their dependency. The many years of repetition only secure the beliefs around the dependency and the external object. For instance, when thinking of opiate addiction, people will form a narrative around why they need to take the substance and what this does for them. This becomes intwined in a whole lifestyle both in the ‘here and now’, ‘historically’ and future possibilities. This happens at such a level that there is risk a person can not see themselves different from the activity of substance use. In essence, with the above quote in mind, an emerging belief occurs that if the substance is not taken, their lives will have no control, or safety. This is of course not the case but so deeply embedded, when consequences are experienced they are rationalised away to ensure the external locus of control(object of addiction) can be kept in place. In affect, if someone believes change is only instigated by the external environment, the motivational therapy approaches will not be as effective because people simply don’t believe in themselves to instigate change and separation. This makes it hard for all but as we see through the positive stories of so many that have fulfilled their lives, not impossible.
As i’m sure when you are reading this, the implications for this theory are so wide and a relationally biopsychosocial model for support would be able to help so many if developed. This would hopefully help the emerging thinking about how we support people and don’t become confluent with he presenting crisis that people may be experiencing. We have some really good practice and evidence across our public health systems, providers, health services, therapeutic teams etc to build on this and ensure, more importantly, an equitable offer to all who may be experiencing addiction and developmental trauma (blog coming on this) in their lives.
The theory and writing on locus of control only offers insight into the process, the real solution is to think about developmental therapy and relational psychotherapy as a way forward in talking therapy to help people make meaning and move on from the impasse of addiction.
Andy Ryan
