Researchers See Promise in Treating Addictive Behaviors With Mindfulness Meditation

When the stresses of life become too much for him, Ken Volante takes a figurative step back and tries out being SOBER. That "nice little trick," as he describes it, is the backbone of mindfulness meditation and it helps him remain sober.

It's a series of steps that allows him to cope with the cravings that would lead him to drink. So important is this practice that he carries with him a laminated card listing those steps.

When he practices being SOBER, he Stops, Observes what's going on, focuses on his Breathing (divorces himself from what's going on around him), Expands (focus what's happening to one's body) and Responds (but constructively).

A binge drinker for two or three years, Volante, of Madison, recently completed an outpatient program at New Start and became part of a pilot study to see whether mindfulness meditation could help alcoholics remain sober and cope with their addiction. The research project is led by Aleksandra Zgierska, a physician at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. (MORE)

Source: Milwaukee Jpurnal-Sentinel