This site explores feelings and the role they play in the development of the skills needed to have happy, healthy lives free of self-defeating behavior, including substance abuse.
The concept of self-image is important because the way a person sees him or herself determines how they will behave. Self-image is especially significant as it relates to alcohol use because alcohol is frequently used by the individual to help them feel better about themselves. It is important that a person is made aware at an early age of their own innate self worth and that mood-altering chemicals are not needed to make them feel better about themselves.
Feelings, the way they are expressed, play a significant roles in the development of self-image. Sometimes young people make decisions that some feelings are more acceptable than others and consequently form a poor self-image if they experience any of these unacceptable feelings. Then result of this is that the young person either denies the feelings and consequently never learns to express them properly, or continues to experience them and feel badly about themselves. In either case, the self-image forms is a poor one. In cases where the individual has never learned the appropriate expression of their feelings, alcohol is frequently used to aid in this expression.
In order to develop a positive self-image, the identification and appropriate expression of feelings is necessary.