Long-term Recovery from Addiction and Underlying Psychological Issues using Expressive Writing as a Potent Tool

Abstract

This article follows a recently published book, titled: Effective use of Creative Writing in the Treatment of Chemical Addiction (Kreuter, 2021 – Nova Science Publishers). In that book, the writing of over sixty men in recovery from addiction express their feelings, thoughts, inspirations, and creative works all geared towards their long-term recovery. This article features work of men and women in both short-term recovery (28-day and 90-day settings, as well as beyond the dates of completion of their respective rehabilitation programs. Through ongoing weekly creative writing workshops, the alumni of Kreuter’s work at St. Christopher’s and Kreuter and Gilligan’s work at Resource Recovery of Orange County, deeper writing demonstrates the effectiveness of the therapeutic device referred to as creative writing. As case studies herein demonstrate, use of creative exposition guided by topical prompts and the offering of therapeutic insight yielded significant benefits to those who suffer from traumatic incident(s) in their lives. Through the writing of stories and letters, writers who came to the drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for chemical abuse are impacted in a healthy way through the attenuation of, at least, part, of their deeply repressed angst over the trauma. In theory, they may have a much easier time completing their recovery program and continuing their active lives with less risk of relapse because of the work they did on the underlying psychological condition. The use of profanity in some of the writings is purposefully left uncensored out of respect for the authors and has been found that such use signifies sincerity on the point of the writer. Use of language is a frequent topic in rehabilitation.