Recovery post treatment: plans, barriers and motivators Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy

Recovery capital

An individual’s ability to recover from substance misuse can be understood in terms of their ‘recovery capital’; the resources they can draw upon in the initiation and maintenance of recovery [12]. Resources may stem from their social networks, education, employment, financial assets, health, beliefs and values etc. Recovery capital can also be considered a way to conceptualise the barriers to and facilitators of recovery with higher levels predicting sustained recovery from substance misuse [13] and negative recovery capital, such as mental illness or incarceration, impeding one’s capacity to recover [12].

While total abstinence may not be a pre-requisite for recovery, findings suggest that most ‘self-remitters’ – people whose recovery capital enables them to overcome addiction unaided by treatment – choose to abstain from future substance use [14]. Recovery capital is also thought to be accumulated over time as a person remains abstinent from drugs and alcohol [15,16].

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