Attachment styles and social effects of alcohol and MDMA

Abstract

This study aims to explore how attachment styles correlate with feelings of interpersonal closeness (Aron et al., 1992) while under the effect of 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methamphetamine (MDMA) and alcohol (ethanol), two psychoactive substances known for their disinhibiting effects in social contexts. Understanding how psychological characteristics influence effects of psychoactive substances is pertinent not only to better understand these effects, but also to gain knowledge on how to prevent substance misuse. Both alcohol and MDMA are known for their prosocial effects. MDMA increases perception of empathy (Wardle & de Hit, 2014), enhances the sense of closeness to other people, and facilitates communication (Green et. al., 2003). Moderate alcohol consumption increases affective expression, conviviality, and pleasure during social interactions (Baum-Baicker, 1985). Notably, both MDMA and red wine consumption were shown to cause feelings of profound peace and all-embracing love, while diminishing the sense of differentiation between the self and the environment (Costa et. al., 2021; Studerus et al., 2010). All this suggests that both MDMA and alcohol have a strong potential to increase interpersonal closeness. Because more anxiously attached people are more prone to feel very passionate and with less differentiation between self and partners (Burri et al., 2014; Davis et al., 2004; Hazen & Shaver, 1987), a pertinent question is whether anxious attachment is related to consumption of alcohol and MDMA, two prosocial drugs that could facilitate the sense of proximity often desired by more anxiously attached people. Research confirmed the association of anxious attachment with regular consumption of alcohol, but not of MDMA (Schindler, 2019; Tucker et al., 2022). In contrast, attachment avoidance tends to be common among regular users of heroin and cannabis (Schindler, 2019), two drugs that frequently cause lethargy, detachment and aloofness (Blum et al., 2013; Johns, 2001), the opposite of prosocial effects. This can be interpreted as these effects being particularly desirable in persons who do not feel comfortable with interpersonal closeness. However, until now investigation on attachment styles and effects of alcohol and MDMA has only examined frequency of use (Schindler, 2019; Tucker et al., 2022), not the extent of emotional closeness the two drugs cause. This is important, because effects of psychoactive substances are subject to wide individual differences, and one might expect that anxious attachment correlates with interpersonal closeness triggered by MDMA, rather than with use per se. Following the same line of reasoning, we would expect that anxious attachment correlates with interpersonal closeness elicited by alcohol. Hence, we hypothesize that greater anxious attachment (but not avoidant or disorganized attachment) correlates with feelings of greater emotional closeness to friends and romantic partners, while under the effect of MDMA and alcohol.

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