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What Is It Like to Be in Alcohol Addiction Recovery? A Dialectical Phenomenological Analysis
Victor Monteiro1, Lucas Bloc2, Guilherme Messas1,3
1Department of Mental Health, Santa Casa de São Paulo School of Medical Sciences, São Paulo, Brazil.
Alcohol addiction recovery involves profound changes beyond abstaining from alcohol. Individuals experience shifts in self-perception, relationships, and life meaning, viewing recovery as a continuous journey of personal transformation.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry and Psychology
- Addiction Studies
- Phenomenology
Background:
- Lack of consensus on alcohol addiction recovery beyond abstinence.
- Challenges in implementing therapeutic strategies and mental health policies.
- Need for a broader definition of recovery.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the lived experience of alcohol addiction recovery.
- To utilize dialectical phenomenological psychopathology (DPP) as a framework.
- To contribute to the definition of recovery beyond symptom remission.
Main Methods:
- Dialectical phenomenological analysis.
- Examination of online interviews with eight participants.
- Focus on Brazilian citizens undergoing alcohol addiction recovery.
Main Results:
- Eight experiential categories emerged, grouped into experiential elements and worldview interpretations.
- Experiential elements include changes in self, interpersonal, and time relations, finding new meaning, and viewing recovery as continuous.
- Worldview interpretations encompass spiritual experiences, moral reformation, and mentality change.
Conclusions:
- Recovery is a process of changing one's being-in-the-world through managing existential imbalances.
- Key dimensions of change include spatiality, temporality, selfhood, and intersubjectivity.
- Findings offer preliminary insights for developing recovery-oriented therapeutic strategies.
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