The Effect of Mindfulness and Physical Exercise on Addicted Women's Behavioral Characteristics and Preventing Them from Further Addiction

Addiction has been considered as one of the main problems and diseases of the present century and has attracted wide range of global concerns. This fact has made the addiction as a highlighted subject matter to be solved. The aim of present study is to investigate the effect of mindfulness and physical exercise on addicted women's behavior characteristics and preventing them from further addiction. In this study, 60 addicted women were randomly selected in a multistage process from the addiction retreat camps of city of Tabriz; Iran. They were divided into four groups including mindfulness, physical exercise, mindfulness and physical exercise, and control groups according to age and height. Programs were held in 24 sessions, in the form of three sessions per week with each session lasted for 60 minutes. Before training initiation and at the end of the last session, the resiliency and self-efficacy questionnaires were filled by the participants. To analyze data MANOVA test was used. The results showed that in mindfulness and physical activity group the resiliency and self-efficacy was significantly improved when compared to the other groups and the individuals were less desired to be addicted again. According to the results, physical activity along with mindfulness intervention can improve addicted women's psychological factors and can be utilized as a non-drug treatment while quitting adiiction.