The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Stress Management Training on Irrational Beliefs and Resiliency of Drug Addicts

Numerous factors involve in the incidence of addiction including social, economic and psychological stress. The present study aimed at studying the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral stress management on irrational beliefs and resilience of drug addicts. In an experimental study, 20 addicts who were in the camp were randomly assigned into two groups of experimental (10 individuals) and control (10 individuals). The experimental group were being treated with cognitive-behavioral stress management for ten 90-minute sessions, and the control group did not receive any treatment. All participants in the study, at the beginning and the end of the treatment and two months after treatment filled out the irrational beliefs and resiliency questionnaire. Analysis of covariance and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used to analyze the collected data. The findings of analysis of covariance between two groups in the post-test was significant in ten aspects of irrational beliefs including the need to recognize and protect others (F = 4.09), high expectations of themselves (F = 16.84), tend to blame (F = 17.03), reaction to frustration (F = 11.88), emotional irresponsibility (F = 10.97), excessive preoccupation (F = 10.97), avoiding the issues (F = 8.48), dependency (F = 12.45), despair to change (F = 8.94), and perfectionism (F = 15.56) in the one present level. In addition, the results of analysis of covariance of second hypothesis showed that resilience (F = 22.61) in the experimental group had a significant difference with the control group. Also, the obtained results were significant at the 0.01 level. Therefore, according to the above-mentioned finding, cognitive-behavioral stress management training is effective in reducing irrational beliefs and increasing the resilience of addicts. According to the lower average scores of the experimental group in the post-test stage in the dimensions of irrational beliefs, it can be concluded that stress management training in a cognitive-behavioral way reduces the irrational beliefs of addicts. Also, according to the higher average scores of the experimental group in the post-test stage in resilience, it can be concluded that cognitive-behavioral stress management training is effective in increasing the resilience of addicts.