Since the 1950s, many authors have been interested in resilience and since the importance and the dynamic nature of resilience was established, it has been studied in many fields of research, addictions being one of them. Only a few researchers have investigated the links between natural recovery (i.e. a recovery without any major medical or therapeutic intervention) and resilience factors which enable a person to free himself from an addiction. Resilience is not only dynamic, but also multi-factorial, i.e. it does not only depend on an individual’s capacities or internal strengths, but also on external factors such as the social, familial and material environment. Moreover, the positive psychology movement shows that many resilience factors can be strengthened thanks to different programmes and techniques. Thus, in a qualitative phenomenological study we explored the capacity of resilience of subjects who have experienced the phenomenon of natural recovery in order to determine the factors which were present at the different moments of their addictive history. Our goal was to understand the operating processes and whether it is the number or rather the nature of the factors that made recovery possible (i.e., quality, quantity and progression of resilience factors). In order to have a « pure » vision of the factors and processes, we chose natural recovery in order to have testimonies from subjects whose recovery was the least influenced by professionals.
The analysis of the interviews (life histories of nine participants) shows a progression in resilience factors in number and intensity from the beginning to the end of their addiction and even after. We also found a sort of pattern as the same factors can be noted for all subjects during the period of recovery and these factors seem to be necessary and sufficient to get out of the addiction. The main factors that were found for all subjects are spirituality, self-determination leading to the feeling of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1994), intelligence and the capacity of (self-)reflection, the capacity of emotional self-regulation (without drugs), the ability to socialize, and having some basic material security (such as housing and food). Spirituality is not always the equivalent of a religious belief, but can be a modified state of consciousness (e.g., mindfulness, meditation, relaxation, (self-)hypnosis, etc.). It generally helps the subject self-regulate his emotions and open his mind to a larger vision of the world, of what surrounds him and of new possibilities.
Some programmes and techniques make it possible to reinforce these factors and we introduce some of them which we find particularly relevant in order to give tools to professionals who are in touch with addicted subjects or with subjects at risk, such as adolescents. Many programmes and tools have been developed by the positive psychology movement and can be transmitted by techniques used in cognitive behavioral therapy. In order to reinforce prevention of addictions, programmes targeting the main resilience factors could be implemented in schools. The number of resilience factors being limited, these interventions can be targeted and thus facilitate interventions and reduce costs at more than one level (economic, temporel, cognitive and psychological). The Penn Resiliency Program (PRP – Reivich, Gillham, Chaplin & Seligman, 2013) is a good exemple of how programmes can be successfully implemented. The PRP, aiming at the well-being and the prevention from depression and anxiety amongst young students, has already been implemented in several schools of North America and Europe and has shown very promising results. It could be of great interest to add the reinforcement of the factors that we found – and which are partly already covered by the PRP – in order to also work on the prevention of addictions which is a major issue in adolescence.
Vocabulary:
natural recovery : rémission naturelle
self-determination : auto-détermination
self-efficacy : auto-efficacité
to implement : mettre en place
cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) : thérapie cognitive et comportementale (TCC)
References:
Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. In V. S. Ramachaudran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior Vol. 4, 71-81. New York: Academic Press.
Gillham, J. E., Reivich, K. J., Freres, D. R., Chaplin, T. M., Shatté, A. J., Samuels, B., Seligman, M. E. P. (2007). School-based prevention of depressive symptoms: A randomized controlled study of the effectiveness and specificity of the Penn Resiliency Program. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 75(1), 919. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.75.1.9