Mindful Positive Emotion Regulation as a Treatment for Addiction: From Hedonic Pleasure to Self-Transcendent Meaning.

ABSTRACT: Chronic drug use is theorized to induce cortico-striatal neuroplasticity, driving an allostatic process marked by increased sensitivity to drug-related cues and decreased sensitivity to natural rewards that results in anhedonia and a dearth of positive affect. As such, positive emotion regulation represents a key mechanistic target for addictions treatment. This paper provides a conceptual model detailing how mindfulness may synergize a range of positive affective mechanisms to reduce addictive behavior, from savoring the hedonic pleasure derived from natural rewards, to self-generating interoceptive reward responses, and ultimately to cultivating self-transcendent meaning. These therapeutic processes may restructure reward processing from over-valuation of drug-related rewards back to val

SUBMITTER: Garland EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8168946 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature