Lisa Ogilvie

The therapeutic value in sharing a personal narrative of hardship can form an important part of an individual's healing process. It is here that growth can be achieved through finding meaning in events, that whilst grounded in the past can be constructively interpreted to influence present opinion and thoughts of the future (Mullet, Akerson, & Turman, 2013). From the perspective of the author, the re-telling of a self-reported account of adversity can help them move forward by making sense of what has happened. Here, the facts of the account do not change, but the way they are reflected on does. In this sense, the story becomes a powerful literary instrument that can help accept past hurts, give a voice to often suppressed aspects of self that are difficult to face and help identify moments of hope and courage that promote resilience (Mullet et al., 2013; Nurser, Rushworth, Shakespeare, & Williams, 2018).

Ten stories of addiction and recovery have been presented. The authors of these are all very different. They include men and women from different cultural backgrounds, who were born or reside in one of eight different countries, and at the time of writing ranged in age from 19 to 70. The common factor that brought these 10 individuals together is they have a history of addiction, are now in recovery and have a story to tell about their experience. Each story is remarkable, recounting the deep unhappiness that is wrought by addiction, but also the remarkable capacity people have to change, to create a better life for themselves, where they live authentically to safeguard their future.

Addiction was formally classified as a primary mental health disorder in the third version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental health disorders (DSM). Now in its fifth edition, the DSM-5 informs contemporary clinical understanding on the behavioural and psychological effects of addiction and substance use disorder (Robinson & Adinoff, 2016). Models of mental health recovery highlight the components considered important to the process of overcoming the detrimental effects of a mental health disorder, being concerned with the resources that an affected individual has and can develop to help them function successfully. The recovery model approach challenges the reliance on pharmacology alone to abate the symptoms of mental illness, instead advocating an individual can accomplish behavioural and psychological change using their own self-actualising potential (Davidson, Rowe, Bellamy, & Delphin-Rittmon, 2021). There are many benefits to this. It offers a safer treatment profile, stops protracted reliance on medication, eliminates medication side effects and can provide tools that promote and safeguard future wellbeing (Dell, Long, & Mancini, 2021).

The G-CHIME model offers a versatile framework to use in addiction treatment services. As a comprehensive model, attentive to the components of wellbeing considered necessary for a successful and protracted recovery, it sets the parameters for a holistic view of support and treatment that endorses a healthy and positive recovery lifestyle. For practitioners, it offers a framework that can aid understanding of client and service user experience, provide theoretical and practical input into intervention design and offer guidance on what can be considered as a successful clinical endpoint. For people in recovery, knowledge of the model highlights important facets of recovery and a way to appraise where work is needed to strengthen it, and for researchers, it offers suggestion of what can studied to improve recovery outcomes and advance knowledge of addiction recovery.

Chatbots are programmed conversational agents that emulate communication systematically using natural language processing. They can be programmed to assume a range of roles where regular human interaction occurs. Within mental health services, they are not as well represented as in other areas of healthcare, with research suggesting that uptake has been hindered by concerns over the accuracy of the information they provide, undeveloped technology, lack of adherence to an ethical framework, and the unconvincing portrayal of human authenticity. Technological improvements have addressed some of these concerns, and as the resultant solution choice increases, the potential for chatbots within mental health is receiving greater attention. In this chapter, two novel uses for chatbots are showcased. Foxbot, a recovery friend, accessible at the point of need to help mitigate some of the common risk factors to sustaining addiction recovery; and ERIC, a counselling client who allows trainee counsellors to practise their counselling skills without having to enlist an actual client.