Recovery post treatment: plans, barriers and motivators Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy
2013, 8:6 doi:10.1186/1747-597X-8-6
Paul Duffy (P.Duffy1@ljmu.ac.uk) Helen Baldwin (H.F.Baldwin@ljmu.ac.uk)
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].
