journaling and addiction recovery: piloting "positive recovery journaling"

Conditions: Addiction

Summary: the main objective of this study is to pilot test the positive peer journaling (ppj) \[later renamed "positive recovery journaling" (prj)\] intervention and its feasibility and acceptability. a second objective is to compare individuals assigned to ppj to individuals in a treatment as usual control group.

many spiritual and religious traditions involve the practice of personal inventory and self-examination. these practices involve conducting a review of the day, spirituality, gratitude, and striving for self-knowledge and self-improvement. the 10th step of alcoholics anonymous (aa) recommends that members conduct such a daily inventory. while this practice may benefit aa members, not everyone seeking addiction recovery joins aa. even for those who do, it can take time to reach step 10 and begin deriving benefits from it. the study pi, dr. amy krentzman, developed positive recovery journaling (prj, formerly "positive peer journaling") as a simple 10-minute daily practice which reviews the past 24 hours on the left side of a journal page and plans the upcoming 24 hours on the right side of a journal page. the prompts for the left and right sides of the prj page are based on principles from positive psychology and behavioral activation. the main objective of this study is to pilot test the prj intervention and to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and logistics of treatment delivery. a second objective is to observe whether prj is associated with improvement in satisfaction with life, happiness with recovery, and commitment to sobriety

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * meet dsm-v criteria for past-year substance use disorder as primary or secondary diagnosis, * english literacy sufficient to make short written lists needed to complete ppj and homework assessments, * minimum 2 weeks sustained abstinence, * completed first 2 weeks of treatment at nuway (approximately 2 weeks), an intensive outpatient substance use disorder treatment program and the recruitment site, * agree to be audio recorded or transcription recorded in group meetings and in individual meetings with research staff, * currently are clients in the nuway outpatient program, * participants must be english speaking and literacy must be strong enough to write short lists and to understand the questions asked in the questionnaires, * participants must have an electronic device that connects to the internet and internet connection for online delivery of intervention during covid-19. exclusion criteria: * presence of a psychotic disorder, psychiatric condition (e.g., suicidal ideation), or cognitive impairment (e.g., severe dementia, traumatic brain injury) limiting ability to give consent and/or participate in the study; * severe psychiatric illness (current schizophrenia, major depression with suicidal ideation); * personality disorders that would interfere with satisfactory participation in or completion of the study protocol, * inability to give informed, voluntary consent to participate, * lack of sufficient english literacy to participate, defined as inability to make a list of 5 things they did yesterday and inability to understand questionnaire items, * any impairment, activity, or situation that in the judgement of the research staff would prevent satisfactory participation in or completion of the study protocol.