Therapeutic Storytelling as a Tool for Drug Addiction-Strengths and Constrains

Abstract

A substance addiction is one of the most complex areas of mental health. Substance abuse, leading often to addiction, can often be difficult to treat. The problem is even more delicate when we are talking about children and adolescents, in particular, because they are extremely vulnerable to substance use. People who face an addiction to drugs or alcohol can use the services of a mental health professional for help in overcoming addiction. One of the most effective treatment methods is storytelling. The therapeutic story reinforces the idea that our life is not one narrative, but a collection of different stories, both good and bad. G.K. Chesterton said, “Stories are useful, not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragon can be defeated.” Threating addicted children through therapeutically story and not using other “drugs” is a real “challenge” for all specialists, not only from Romania, but from entire world too. The problem is related to the next 2 questions: 1. Is it therapeutically story an efficient method to heal addicted children; 2. Who can do it? Through an auto-questionnaire survey, we will try to establish if the therapeutic storytelling is an efficient intervention to prevent, to solve the drug abuse and to highlight some ideas about this topic. This study is a part of a bigger study [5], which started in 2016 and its’ purpose is discovering the role of the therapeutically story for different people with different needs in order to use this results in educational activity but not only.