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Thursday 30 June 2011

Motivation for Addiction

Smoking is far more than just a physical dependancy. For those looking to quit it is just as much psychological!

Motivation is a key factor in quitting. No motivation, no reason to quit, the less likely a person is to quit!

A new motivational approach by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine was published recently and involved using Text messaging to mobile phones to provide the extra motivation. The study examined the long-term effects of specially-designed motivational text messages.

The motivated group received five text messages a day for the first five weeks and then three per week for the next 26 weeks with a personalised system which also allowed people to receive instant messages at times of need by texting the word 'crave' or 'Lapse'.

Examples of the messages include:
•"This is it! -- QUIT DAY, throw away all your fags. TODAY is the start of being QUIT forever, you can do it!"
•"Cravings last less than 5 minutes on average. To help distract yourself, try sipping a drink slowly until the craving is over."

The results showed that continuous abstinence at six months was significantly increased in the motivated group with a 10.7% success rate compared to 4.9% success rate in the control group.

Not only are motivational Text messages a convenient way for smokers to receive support to quit, the extra motivation they received clearly made the difference between deciding to quit or not. The psychological side of the addiction is clearly strong and the ability to motivate the participants in the study helped them fight their cravings.

Motivational techniques have been found to work with a number of different addictions, or other psychological illnesses. They are many times when they only thing holding a client back is their own lack of motivation. If you feel your clients need to be better motivated then look into SDS's 'Motivational Interviewing' course and start motivating your clients today!

Motivational Interviewing and Beyond"

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