Sobering stories: Narratives of self-redemption predict behavioral change and improved health among recovering alcoholics.

Abstract

The present research examined whether the production of a narrative containing self-redemption (wherein the narrator describes a positive personality change following a negative experience) predicts positive behavioral change. In Study 1, we compared the narratives of alcoholics who had maintained their sobriety for over 4 years with those of alcoholics who had been sober 6 months or less. When describing their last drink, the former were significantly more likely to produce a narrative containing self-redemption than the latter. In Study 2, we examined the relation between the profession of self-redemption and behavioral change using a longitudinal design, by following the newly sober alcoholics from Study 1 over time. Although indistinguishable at initial assessment, newly sober alcoholics whose narratives included self-redemption were substantially more likely to maintain sobriety in the following months, compared to newly sober alcoholics who produced nonredemptive narratives; 83% of the redemptive group maintained sobriety between assessments, compared to 44% of nonredemptive participants. Redemptive participants in Study 2 also demonstrated improved health relative to the nonredemptive group. In both studies, the effects of self-redemption on sobriety and health held after controlling for relevant personality traits, alcohol dependence, recovery program involvement, initial physical and mental health, and additional narrative themes. Collectively, these results suggest that the production of a self-redemptive narrative may stimulate prolonged behavioral change and thus indicate a potentially modifiable psychological process that exhibits a major influence on recovery from addiction.

Variation in narrative identity is associated with trajectories of mental health over several years.

“…In a study by Bauer and McAdams (2010), themes of communion in emerging adults’ stories of their personal goals were associated with increases in mental health three years later. In a study by Dunlop and Tracy (2013), Alcoholics Anonymous participants whose stories of their last drink included themes of redemption were more likely to report remaining sober four months later than those whose narratives did not contain this theme (Dunlop & Tracy, 2013). Finally, in a study by Lodi-Smith and colleagues (2009), low levels of themes of contamination (as part of a composite variable representing “affective processing”) in college students’ stories of their personality change during college were associated with increases in mental health over the four years (Lodi-Smith et al, 2009).…”

Personal, Master, and Alternative Narratives: An Integrative Framework for Understanding Identity Development in Context

“…For example, Dunlop and Tracy [2013] found that recovering alcoholics whose personal narrative of their last drink was redemptive were more likely to stay sober over time than those whose story did not follow this master narrative. Adler and colleagues [Adler et al, 2015] recently found that those individuals whose life stories were more redemptive had increasingly positive mental health over time.…”

“…This story is one that moves from negative to positive, tragedy to triumph. McAdams [2013] has argued that there are certain types of redemptive narratives, such as atonement, upward mobility, liberation, and recovery [see also Benish-Weisman, 2009;Dunlop & Tracy, 2013]. Yet even with these different types of redemption, at base, redemption is a structure for a narrative.…”

Research Methods for Studying Narrative Identity: A Primer

“…For example, individual differences in autobiographical narratives are associated with the successful maintenance of sobriety among alcoholics (Dunlop & Tracy, 2013) and the desistence from crime among ex-convicts (Maruna, 2001), and individual differences in the trajectory of narrative development precede changes in mental health among psychotherapy clients (Adler, 2012).…”