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Abstract
Examination of the change strategies associated with successful long-term sobriety remains an understudied area in addiction research. The following study recruited individuals with long-term sobriety (range 16–25 years continuous abstinence). Subjects (n = 11) were surveyed on demographic information, problem history, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) affiliation, and helping behaviors within several life domains over the course of sobriety. General helping behaviors increased from lower levels in the month prior to getting sober, to moderate levels at 1 year of sobriety, but did not continue to increase with additional years of sobriety. Levels of general help to others at home, work, and 12-step programs were similar at varying lengths of sobriety. Whereas overall levels of general help given to others were similar across settings, helping other alcoholics, as opposed to helping others at home or work, was rated as contributing the most to staying sober. Across time, alcoholics increased participation in helping behaviors specific to 12-step programs. The utility of helping others as a behavioral strategy to maintain successful addictive behavioral change is discussed.
Notes
This research is based on a modification of a poster presented at the 30th Annual Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in Chicago, IL (CitationPagano, M. E., Jaber, J., Kotz, M. M., Dean, R., & Zywiak, W. H., 2007).
This research was supported by grant K01 AA015137-02 from the National Institute of Alcohol and Alcoholism to Dr. Pagano. Analyses and manuscript preparation were made possible through the generous support of the Department of Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, and the Decision Sciences Institute, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Providence, RI.
+Items are rated as “Never (1)”, “Rarely (2)”, “Sometimes (3)”, “Often (4)”, or “Always (5)”.
† Reverse scored item
*Time Main Effect (p < .001); helping levels not sharing a common letter are significantly different at p < .005.
