Mindfulness and Alcohol and Substance Use Disorder

Dr. Sheila Cuomo, LCPC, EDD, Adjunct Professor, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Washington DC Campus

Nilgun Taskintuna, Clinical Mental Health Counseling Student, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Washington DC Campus

LaKeisha Hines, Clinical Mental Health Counseling Student, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Washington DC Campus

Michelle Golob-Birjandian, Clinical Mental Health Counseling Student, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Washington DC Campus

Samantha Wright, Clinical Mental Health Counseling Student, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Washington DC Campus

Monica Douglas, Clinical Mental Health Counseling Student, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Washington DC Campus

Addiction is a chronic and debilitating disorder and an important public health issue. Addiction leads to deaths of despair, which is a quite new term in public health literature, suicide, liver disease, and drug overdose. Clinicians who work in the field of addiction know very well that addiction is a disorder of isolation. It is important for people with addiction disorders to connect with their external and internal world in a harmonious way. Mindfulness techniques are important for emotional regulation. In a series of studies, an eight-week course of mindfulness techniques have shown to help loosen the grip of addiction in those who have suffered with opioid abuse. A variety of mindfulness techniques can be learned and self-applied effectively by the patients in their daily lives. Patients could be taught neurobiology of addiction and mindfulness, how mindfulness effects emotional regulation and stress reduction, meditation, and specific mindfulness techniques, thought distortions, self-compassion, and how to apply these techniques in daily life. Incorporating mindfulness and working on faulty cognitions might be useful not only for patients but professionals. Counselors who choose to provide mindfulness as a part of their psychoeducational approach, in conjunction with other treatment modalities, will be helping their clients in the long run.

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