A Mindful Approach to Overcoming Addiction

More than 20 million Americans have a substance use disorder. Addiction is powerful and can easily destroy lives. Many approaches exist to fight such disorders, including the familiar “twelve-step” methods, but none of them have tremendous success rates. Now, two counselors present a way to use mindfulness in the fight against addiction. They speak with our hosts, discussing the evidence that mindfulness works and how it can be used to treat addiction. They speak of their new book on this topic and explain how it can be used by the reader. They also talk about forgiveness as a powerful therapy tool, both forgiveness of oneself and of others.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS  

[4:23]   How does mindfulness work for addiction problems?

[5:46]   Is there evidence that mindfulness works?

[12:17] How does the book help an individual?

[14:29] What prompted the writing of the book?

[21:49] Forgiving yourself before forgiving others.

Hosted by Gabe Howard and Vincent M. Wales. Previous episodes can be found at psychcentral.com/show or on your favorite podcast player.