Visualizing a 'future self': KU research on how creative tools fight addiction and anxiety

If you knew the world was ending tomorrow, how likely would you be to get up at 5 a.m. to go to the gym? Would you still choose to go to work? Would you pass on dessert? Even when the world isn’t ending, it’s difficult to forgo free donuts in the break room — though we might regret it later. 

Excessive discounting of future rewards has been linked to increases in depression, anxiety, and substance use, making it an area of research key to encouraging healthy, long-term choices. 

Richard Yi, director of the Cofrin Logan Center for Addiction Research and Treatment, has been studying this element of behavioral economics called delay discounting — the tendency to choose smaller rewards over larger ones when the larger reward is in the future. 

"Let's take the example of someone who uses a drug: the benefits of using that drug are almost always immediate,” Yi said. “There’s a famous saying by some scientists in our field who said something like, 'If the hangover came first, alcohol would not be a problem.’” 

Delay discounting also explains why harsher penalties for substance use don’t tend to work. People aren’t thinking about long-term legal consequences. They're thinking about how to feel better or how to avoid the pain they're in right now. 

Yi sees addressing delay discounting as an upstream approach to targeting destructive behavior — with implications for addiction, eating disorders, youth violence and more. 

Researchers and clinicians explore this by encouraging people in recovery to think more about their long-term goals. Visualizing a life without substance use can help people better appreciate the effort required for delayed rewards. 

A pilot research project at the Cofrin Logan Center in 2024 tracked 39 women living in a residential treatment center in Lawrence. Participants in a one-hour creative art session created a visual representation of their aspirational “future home.” 

“What I like about that program of work is that it's not about substance use,” Yi said. 

“There's no conversation like, 'Oh, drugs are bad,’” Yi added. “We try to get them to think about their life when they're free from substance misuse. ... What does that look like?” 

After participating, an analysis showed significant changes in delay discounting. Yi said that’s promising, though the pilot study needs to be replicated on a larger scale. 

"Engagement is one of the best predictors of treatment outcome,” he said.  “Lots of treatments work, but people have to keep on doing it. And if it's boring, then people just stop doing it.” 

Delay discounting is a factor in improving outcomes for youth. While the world might not end tomorrow, difficult circumstances can make it feel like it could.

Yi was involved in a meta-analysis published in November that studied environmental factors that may place youth at risk for negative health outcomes. The study found a small connection to delay discounting and household income. However, it found family environment had a much larger impact on delay discounting. 

Parents or caregivers with substance use disorders or other mental health disorders increased the preference for immediate rewards. Children who grew up experiencing verbal aggression, physical discipline, or humiliation as a form of discipline were less likely to value delayed rewards. 

At its core, delayed discounting is a reduced or diminished regard for future consequences. It’s correlated with addiction, risky behavior, and financial mismanagement — all of which can make life more difficult for someone in the long-term. 

Is there a way to encourage thinking another way, toward delayed rewards? Just like with the art therapy example, getting people to think more about the future seems to help. 

“There's some psychological distance between you and you a year from now,” Yi said. “When you're making a delay discounting decision, you're finally making a decision for yourself in the future.” 

How people think about their future selves, called episodic future thinking, has a powerful impact on their behavior and thought processes in the present. 

Episodic future thinking also increases altruistic behavior, as Yi observed in his own study in 2016. Participants were asked to think of themselves in the future. Researchers observed a decrease in in social discounting, or an increase in willingness to sacrifice an outcome for the self in order to give to another, when participants thought of their future selves. 

 Yi said his students have been researching the implications of episodic future thinking in other studies. 

“They're finding some super cool stuff,” Yi said. “Like, people who have depression, clinical depression and anxiety tend to imagine the future, but it's not positive. They're actually pretty good at imagining a gloomy future.” 

Other studies have found people with brain trauma or dementia, who struggle with memory, also struggle to imagine the future, which impacts their behavior. 

“There appears to be some good evidence ... that disorders associated with diminished memory are associated with higher rates of delay discounting,” Yi said, meaning they prefer smaller but immediate rewards. 

Research on delay discounting is moving toward understanding some of these larger behaviors and their impact on people’s lives — from substance use to gambling, eating disorders, some types of cancer, and more. 

“I think we're starting to see it a little bit more in some of these other areas,” Yi said.