Reconstructing Meaning in Absurdity: an Albert Camus–Inspired Framework for Safeguarding Mental Health Among Individuals with Substance Use Disorder Original Research Article Country Philippines
In contemporary mental health discourse, experiences of meaninglessness and existential distress remain insufficiently integrated with philosophical interpretations of recovery, particularly within substance use disorder contexts. Although Camus’ concept of absurdity explains the tension between human search for meaning and life’s indifference, limited empirical work has examined how this is lived by individuals in addiction recovery. This study explored how persons with substance use disorder experience meaninglessness and construct meaning within Camusian absurdity in relation to mental health and recovery. A qualitative phenomenological design was used involving eight recovered individuals in Cagayan de Oro City selected through purposive sampling and interviewed using semi-structured interviews, with data analyzed thematically. Findings show that participants initially experienced meaninglessness as suffering marked by emotional distress, identity disruption, anxiety, and relational detachment, often leading to substance use as escapist coping. However, recovery emerged when meaninglessness was consciously acknowledged, enabling acceptance, self-awareness, and behavioral change. Participants reinterpreted suffering as a catalyst for transformation, reconstructing purpose through sobriety, human support, gratitude, service, and spiritual grounding. Consistent with Camus, meaning was found to be not discovered but actively created through conscious engagement with absurdity. Overall, confronting meaninglessness functioned both as a source of distress and as a foundation for psychological resilience and recovery. These findings highlight the existential dimension of addiction recovery as both a psychological and philosophical process of meaning reconstruction. It is recommended that mental health interventions for substance use disorder integrate existential meaning-centered approaches and strengthen relational and spiritual support systems to facilitate meaning reconstruction and sustained recovery.
Does Money Supply Drive Inflation in Bangladesh? Evidence from ARDL Bounds Testing Approach. Original Research Article Country Bangladesh
This paper examines the relationship between money supply and inflation in Bangladesh using annual data from 1991 to 2023 obtained from the World Development Indicators (WDI). The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach is used in this study to evaluate the short- and long-run link between broad money and consumer price inflation. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root tests show that the variables - inflation and wide money - are stationary at levels, i.e., I(0), hence meeting the ARDL estimation criterion. The optimal lag length (lag 2) is determined by all lag length selection criteria (FPE, AIC, SC, HQ). The ARDL limits test (F-statistic = 5.21) exceeds the upper constraint at the 10% and 5% levels of significance, indicating long-run co integration between broad money and inflation. The long-run coefficient of broad money is 8.48 (p = 0.01), which means that a 1% increase in broad money causes an 8.48% increase in consumer price inflation in the long run. The coefficient of error correction is estimated at -0.71, implying that 71.06% of the error correction occurs within a year, confirming that the adjustment is very fast. Tests rule out serial correlation, heteroskedasticity and nonnormality of residuals. The CUSUM and CUSUM of Squares tests of stability show that the model remains stable throughout time. These findings provide strong empirical evidence in support of the quantity theory of money in Bangladesh, with consequences for monetary policy.
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