Abstract
This chapter evaluates the centrality of trauma to women's experience of substance use and long-term recovery. In a powerful and moving pen portrait of ‘Laura’, it highlights the complexities of substance use recovery when combined with recovery from violent victimisation. The recovery from violence and abuse becomes an ‘additional dimension’ to Laura's long-term recovery process. Indeed, the chapter challenges the limiting notions some definitions place on long-term recovery, pointing out that for someone with a 50-year history of using substances, three years is a very long recovery period. It is therefore important for practitioners to engage with the potential ongoing trauma women with such experiences face, and to understand that substance use can be a coping mechanism which should be removed with care and with support in place.
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