Development of Cognitive based Acceptance Program (CAP) for wives of alcoholics: A pilot study

Pages:267-271
Rekha Johny Neelankavil and Rosalito De Guzman (The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines)

Alcohol addiction is a family ailment that strains the family to that extreme point of family break up and affects negatively the growth of family life. It also affects negatively psychological and physical health. It destabilizes family income, oneness among the family members and the family dynamics. Women are worried and affected by their partner’s drinking. The negative effect of alcohol destroys the wives of alcoholics, as it to the alcohol addicts. Various stressful experiences due to partner’s alcoholism are reflected in the form of psychological problems especially the depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics. The negative emotional state and thought patterns force them to perceive the life experience as more stressful. This makes a marked effect on their physical, psychological, marital and social life. Recognizing the need to help the wives of alcoholics who have the perceived stress and depressive symptoms, the researcher developed Cognitive based Acceptance Program (CAP) integrating Transactional Cognitive appraisal theory, Stress buffering model and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) model. The program was evaluated by six inter-disciplinary experts. After words, a feasibility test was conducted with ten wives of alcoholics who have high perceived stress and moderate depressive symptoms. The intervention was positively accepted by the wives of alcoholics and the results of the pilot study revealed a significant decrease in perceived stress and depressive symptoms among the participants.