| The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between mindfulness, AA involvement and years of sobriety. Alcoholics Anonymous is one of the most helpful resources, when trying to tackle the alcoholic's dilemma (Alexander, 1982; McCrady, 2008). Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has reshaped current day thinking on how to best professionally treat the alcoholic (Humphreys & Moos, 2007; Knack, 2009). Cognitive behavioral therapy is viewed as one of the templates to overlay a twelve-step treatment approach (Ouimette, Finney, & Moos, 1997). Witkiewitz, Marlatt and Walker (2005) have developed a cognitive behavioral approach towards preventing substance use relapse utilizing mindfulness training. Over the last twenty years, mindfulness has been useful in providing symptom relief for medical and mental health patients. Many individuals who have developed a mindfulness practice have reported increased awareness, improved attention, and more success concentrating (Baer, 2006; Didonna, 2009). Research in the field of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention from problem drinking, has targeted individuals who are early in recovery and who have been professionally treated (Witkiewitz, Marlatt & Walker, 2005). There is limited research that targets the benefits of long-term sobriety, AA involvement and mindfulness together. It was hypothesized that the more involved AA members the more mindful they are. It was also hypothesized that years of sobriety, in AA, would be positively correlated with mindfulness. Results showed that years of sobriety were positively correlated with more nonjudgmental thinking regarding inner experiences. Preliminary findings indicate that there is a relationship between involvement in AA and mindfulness but future research in mindfulness needs to target more discriminant measures of AA involvement. |
