Existential models of addiction focus on beliefs, attitudes, and values of the drug users. For example, psychologists have found that problem drinkers and alcoholics anticipate greater benefits and more powerful effects from drinking than do other drinkers. These beliefs precede actual drinking experiences (Miller, Smith, & Goldman, 1990).

Beliefs about oneself and about the role of drugs or alcohol in one's life are sometimes called existential models (Greaves, 1980). Khantzian (1985) has proposed that addicts use drugs to offset or address specific problems they believe they have, such as a lack of confidence in social-sexual dealings, a view sometimes referred to as the adaptive model of addiction. According to Peele (1985), the individual becomes addicted to a substance because it fulfills essential intrapsychic, interpersonal, and environmental needs.

Views about oneself in regard to a substance-abuse problem are crucial for dealing with...