Piloting "Positive Peer Journaling" a Journaling Practice to Support Recovery From Addiction

Inclusion criteria

• minimum 18 years of age,
• meet DSM-V criteria for past-year SUD as primary or secondary diagnosis,
• English literacy sufficient to make short written lists needed to complete PPJ and homework assessments,
• minimum 2 weeks sustained abstinence,
• completed first 2 weeks of treatment at Wayside (approximately 2 weeks), a residential substance use disorder treatment program and the recruitment site,
• priority will go to participants who are from or moving back to a rural area or small town defined as a population less than 10,500,
• agree to be audio recorded in group meetings and in individual meetings with research staff,
• currently are clients in the Wayside residential program,
• participants must be English speaking and literacy must be strong enough to write short lists and to understand the questions asked in the questionnaires.
• Priority will go to women who will be residing at Wayside for the duration of the study activities (and not moving out after one week, for example).

Exclusion criteria

• presence of a psychotic disorder, psychiatric condition (e.g., suicidal ideation), or cognitive impairment (e.g., severe dementia, traumatic brain injury) limiting ability to give consent and/or participate in the study;
• severe psychiatric illness (current schizophrenia, major depression with suicidal ideation);
• personality disorders that would interfere with satisfactory participation in or completion of the study protocol,
• inability to give informed, voluntary consent to participate,
• lack of sufficient English literacy to participate, defined as inability to make a list of 5 things they did yesterday and inability to understand questionnaire items,
• any impairment, activity, or situation that in the judgement of the research staff would prevent satisfactory participation in or completion of the study protocol.