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Photos taken by one of the group participants which, she states, show using her
psychological resources, such as gratitude – a deeper appreciation of everyday things
in life, savouring through photography, and being mindful of the experience.
Figure 2: A simple graphic of the aim of positive psychology.
encouraged to engage in group exercises and work in between sessions, acquiring
skills and psychological resources that will help them with their recovery.
For people with addictions the work must begin by restoring character strengths.
Taking the VIA strengths test – available to anyone at www.viastrengths.org –
enables them to discover their top five signature strengths to follow specific
objectives. A goal-oriented mindset can then be facilitated through increasing
people’s willpower or motivation, as well as their ‘waypower’ – their ability to set and
achieve realistic goals while being able to deal with challenges.
What is needed is a radical change in the attitude people have towards life,
taking responsibility to find the right solutions to whatever comes up. People need
empowerment through increasing their resilience to take control over their own
lives, and be given the freedom to accept or reject the opportunities life presents.
Finding what makes life worth living through the deeper appreciation of
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gratitude, learning about how generating positive emotions in one’s life can build
an upward spiral, and recognising the importance of compassion towards oneself
and others, are all psychological resources that can provide us with tremendous
support during hardship.
Focusing intentionally on our immediate experience and becoming grounded
in the present moment through the formal and informal practices of
mindfulness will help with the integration of the aforementioned aspects into
our lives. And last but not least, we can use mindfulness to put basic nutrition
into action to keep ourselves healthy. The end product of learned skills and
acquired resources is resilience – the ability to cope with adversity by replacing
maladaptive coping strategies.
Although it is too early to draw conclusions, the results of the first pilot study
are promising. People’s lives in the group have changed significantly. Based on
participants’ feedback, nothing had made them think as much as this intervention
before. One participant said: ‘I feel like I have just woken up! I see life in a totally
different light!’ Another said: ‘This intervention has changed my way of thinking
about myself. I think I shall give myself a little more credit from now on.’ They also
felt that the intervention taught them to rely more on themselves: ‘I don’t want to
go to the recovery services for the rest of my life,’ and were empowered by the
skills and resources they acquired.
The main themes arising from the feedback were ‘I can do this!’ ‘I am capable’,
and ‘life is worth living’. Based on the results of the study questionnaires,
participants have become more mindful, their dependence on substances has
decreased, their wellbeing has increased and they feel more resilient and more
hopeful. They have become less anxious and less depressed, and finally, they have
more positive emotions and positive experiences.
We intend to start a second pilot study in January 2017, which will test an
improved version of the intervention.
The authors would like to thank the clients who participated in the programme and
Lifeline Project Bolton for their cooperation, and Alcohol Research UK for funding
the pilot study. This project would not have been possible without their support.
Katalin Ujhelyi is a PhD student at the University of Bolton, Jerome Carson is
professor of psychology at the University of Bolton, and Ioanna Melidou is
psychosocial interventions team manager for Lifeline Project.
For further details of this work contact: [email protected]
Full references online at www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
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