Most of today’s treatment of substance abuse takes the form of an emergency, intermittent and temporary effort in a start stop fashion. However, to achieve continuity in the treatment of addiction disorders we need more emphasis on models that take a long-term perspective, and where there is adequate overlap between the ongoing and the […]
Part 2 The helper therapy principle (HTP) observes the helper’s health benefits derived from helping another with a shared malady. The HTP is embodied by the program of Alcoholics Anonymous as a method to diminish egocentrism as a root cause of addiction. This article reviews recent evidence of the HTP in […]
Part 1 “Helping others in the program of AA has forged a therapy based on the kinship of common suffering…” Here we cite and use excerpts to show how helping others helps us in recovery and how the wider world can and has benefited from a similar approach. […]
The principles of the programme of Alcoholics Anonymous are scientific and closely follow all the helping therapies which lead people to emotional well-being.
Yesterday we looked a how low heart rate variability in alcoholics (active and in recovery) may influence self, emotion and stress regulation, and have a limited effect on impulsivity, and result in a “locked in” attention to alcohol-related cues, all of which have obvious consequences for relapse. Here […]
The article on the effectiveness of Mindfulness that we cite and use excerpts from today (1) was published Frontiers in Psychiatry entitled “Mindfulness training targets neurocognitive mechanisms of addiction at the attention-appraisal-emotion interface” was designated in the 93rd percentile of 3,480,147 articles tracked by Altmetric. The Altmetric score is a […]
In yesterday’s blog we looked at how AA membership and the 12 step program of recovery helped reduce impulsivity in recovering alcoholics. We mentioned also that impulsivity was present as a pathomechanism of alcoholism from vulnerability in “at risk” children from families, were there was a history of […]
Impulsivity or lack of behaviour inhibition, especially when distressed, is one psychological mechanisms which is implicated in all addictive behaviour from substance addiction to behaviour addiction. It is, in my view, linked to the impaired emotion processing as I have elucidated upon in various blogs on this site.This […]
So keep taking the medicine… “A 16-Year Follow-Up of Initially Untreated Individuals Abstract This study focused on the duration of participation in professional treatment and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) for previously untreated individuals with alcohol use disorders. These individuals were surveyed at baseline and 1 year, 3 years, 8 […]
“Resentment is the “number one” offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else… If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics these things are […]
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