Alcoholism is a chronic disease that relapses repeatedly due to a loss of control over drinking, despite the negative personal and social consequences. Given that experience avoidance is a key factor that impedes recovery in alcoholism and that alcoho...
Alcoholism is a chronic disease that relapses repeatedly due to a loss of control over drinking, despite the negative personal and social consequences. Given that experience avoidance is a key factor that impedes recovery in alcoholism and that alcohol use is triggered by internal control strategies, acceptance-based therapy, which centers on long-term action planning based on acceptance of experiences and internal flexibility, can be an effective intervention for addicts. Therefore, this study constructed and applied a recovery-promoting Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help community-dwelling alcoholics recover from addiction, and evaluated its effectiveness.
The procedure for constructing the program in this study
was as follows. First, based on Hayes’s Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, relapse factors for alcoholism were identified and goals were set to be achieved through the program. Second, factors, that support addiction recovery, were identified based on the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Third, details to help addicts learn and practice specific ways to deal with alcohol were selected. Finally, after conducting a preliminary research, the program was finalized with feedback from experts.
The study participants were enrolled in organizations that support recovery from alcoholism, and there were a total of 54 people: 28 in the experimental group and 26 in the control group. During the study period, the experimental group participated in recovery-promoting Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for a total of 8 sessions(90 minutes per session and once a week) and the control group participated in existing programs provided by their respective organizations.
The quantitative evaluation of the program was analyzed by using a non-equivalent control group pre-post design to determine the effect of the recovery-promoting Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on alcoholics' acceptance, alcohol abstinence self-efficacy, psychological flexibility, and psychological well-being, and the qualitative evaluation of the program was analyzed after collecting qualitative data through individual interviews. The quantitative data analysis showed that there were significant differences in the amount of change over time in the acceptance (F=13.741, p=<.001) and psychological flexibility (F=21.316, p=<.001), and psychological well-being (F=8.564, p=.005) scores of the alcoholics in the experimental group compared to the control group, however, there was no significant difference in the amount of change over time in the alcohol abstinence self-efficacy (F=1.910, p=.173) score of the alcoholics. As a result of qualitative data analysis, the program's effectiveness was derived into a total of 4 themes and 9 sub-themes. The four themes were "Addiction Recovery Begins with Willing Acceptance," "The Contradictions of Confidence in Sobriety," "The Value of Sobriety as Revealed through Behavior," and "A New Life as an Alcoholic.
Through this, it was confirmed that this recovery-promoting Acceptance and Commitment Therapy was effective in changing the lives of alcoholics through sobriety and, as a result, could help them recover from addiction. The results of this study provide a scientific basis for further research in alcoholism recovery, and the program can be used in clinical and community practice to support the recovery of alcoholics.