The study investigated the relationship of self-disclosure about a psychotic episode to posttraumatic stress symptoms, posttraumatic growth (PTG) and recovery following psychosis. Thirty-four participants who had experienced a first episode of psychosis completed the Impact of Events Scale-Revised, Disclosure of Trauma Questionnaire (a measure of need for, and resistance to, disclosure), a measure of actual self-disclosure, Posttraumatic Growth Inventory and Process of Recovery Questionnaire. The results highlighted that degree of self-disclosure about a psychotic episode was associated with lower levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and higher levels of PTG and recovery. Low PTSD symptoms, high recovery, high actual self-disclosure and low reluctance to talk were significantly related to high PTG. However, only low levels of PTSD symptoms significantly predicted recovery. Finally, recovery was found to mediate the relationship between self-disclosure and PTG. The findings are discussed in terms of the PTG model. Clinically, the findings suggest that people with early psychosis may benefit from disclosing their experiences of psychosis, including those aspects that were traumatic, as this may support the processes of recovery and PTG.

Procrastination is a tendency to delay tasks, despite knowing that it might lead to negative consequences. Previous studies have shown that students who frequently procrastinate, present difficulties with maintaining attention during task completion. These problems might be related to decreased resistance to distraction caused by task-irrelevant stimuli appearing in the surrounding environment. In the present study we verified this hypothesis investigating the relationship between procrastination and susceptibility to distraction with the use of behavioral and neurophysiological measures. We recruited high (HP) and low (LP) procrastinating students and asked them to perform an Auditory Visual Distraction task which required participants to respond to visual stimuli and ignore the preceding sounds. Although HP (vs. LP) did not show increased orientation of attention towards distracting sounds, they were still less attentive to task-relevant stimuli. These results indicate that procrastination-related attentional deficits might be linked to other sources of distraction, such as mind-wandering episodes.

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