Imagine a dependency that doesn’t smell like alcohol. Doesn’ | Figure 1
YaroslavBondaenko
Post in Addiction Psychiatry, Neurology, Addiction Medicine
Imagine a dependency that doesn't smell like alcohol.
Doesn't slur speech.
Doesn't destroy careers or shatter families.
At least — not in the way you expect.
Imagine a phenomenon so ordinary, so culturally “normal,” that we don’t even call it a habit.
We call it a ritual… a tradition… a lifestyle.
Now imagine that this ritual is, in fact, a biologically polished, cognitively disguised form of dependence.
This is latent alcoholization — the subject of our new study involving socially adapted, successful individuals from nine countries.
People who “have control.”
Or so they believe.
👉 We introduce LADAR — the Latent Alcohol Dependence Adaptive Regulation model.
A five-phase trajectory showing how a seemingly harmless glass in the evening becomes a silent regulator of emotions, motivation, behavior, and — yes — even identity.
Because the brain does not ask for permission.
It encodes patterns.
It stabilizes rituals.
It forms associations like: evening = alcohol; relaxation = alcohol; socializing = alcohol.
Until one day a person quietly admits: “Without it, the evening just doesn’t feel right.”
This is no longer about pleasure.
It’s about a hidden neuropsychological dependency, camouflaged as normality.
And the most dangerous part?
Society applauds it.
“You don’t drink?”
“You deserve to relax.”
“One glass — it’s okay - relax.”
this is how the shadow side of social adaptation works —
soft, civilized, rationalized.
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