Narrative Medicine and Addiction: Story, Meaning, and Recovery

Addiction is not only a neurobiological or behavioral condition, but also a deeply human experience shaped by story, meaning, and identity. Narrative Medicine—an interdisciplinary field that integrates the study of stories and storytelling into clinical practice—offers powerful frameworks for understanding and addressing substance use disorders and behavioral addictions. Through close attention to narrative identity, language, and empathy, Narrative Medicine has been shown to enhance clinician understanding, improve patient outcomes, and deepen human connection in healthcare.This Research Topic invites submissions that explore how narrative approaches illuminate the lived experience of addiction and recovery, shape public and clinical understanding, and inform treatment and policy. We seek contributions that bridge disciplines—medicine, psychology, public health, neuroscience, literature, theology, and the arts—to expand how we understand and respond to addiction in individuals and communities.The goal of this Research Topic is to decrease stigma, cultivate empathy, enhance patient care and outcomes, and expand addiction education for healthcare clinicians, government leaders and policymakers, religious leaders, as well as the general public. By exploring how stories shape identity, empathy, and recovery, this collection aims to advance a more integrative and meaning-centered approach to addiction and public health.Suitable themes for manuscripts include, but are not limited to:• Narrative Identity and meaning reconstruction in Addiction Recovery• Trauma and Narrative Repair in Addiction Recovery• The role of narrative humility in clinician–patient relationships in addiction care• Addiction and the arts: insights from literature, film, art, and music• Narrative coherence and relapse: nonlinear recovery stories• Integrating narrative meaning-making with neurobiological models of addiction• Measuring the impact of narrative interventions in addiction treatment• Narrative-based education and training in addiction medicine and psychiatry• Story, empathy, and the therapeutic alliance in substance use treatment• Culturally embedded addiction narratives and their clinical implications• Narrative medicine and moral injury among addiction clinicians• Storytelling and meaning reconstruction in behavioral addictions • Narrative framing of addiction in media, culture, and policy• Mixed-methods and qualitative approaches to studying narrative change in recovery outcomes• Bridging narrative and data: integrating patient stories with measurement-based care• The role of primal world beliefs as narrative identity in addiction recovery• The role of religious narratives and/or narrative theology in destigmatization and addiction recoveryWe especially encourage interdisciplinary and cross-sector work that connects Narrative Medicine Practice, Public Health and Policy, the Arts, and Religion and Theology, as well as studies that incorporate qualitative, mixed-methods, or innovative narrative methodologies. Topic editors: James H Berry, Lisa Coutras Terris Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/75932/narrative-medicine-and-addiction-story-meaning-and-recovery