Recovery and Recovery Capital: Aligning Measurement with Theory and Practice

Abstract

Although most conceptualizations of recovery from substance use disorders place abstinence at their core, the process of recovery also includes improvements to individual well-being that go beyond abstinence or remission. The process of recovery is heterogeneous and is often exemplified in different ways for different people and in different contexts. In this chapter, we argue that the process of initiating and sustaining long-term recovery is dynamic and can vary across individuals. Recovery being dynamic means that what recovery looks like for a given individual may shift across time and context. Similarly, one person may base their recovery on very different daily routines than another person. As a result, the resources used to initiate and sustain recovery, referred to as recovery capital, also necessarily vary by time, context, and person. Although a simple premise, this argument has profound impact on measurement: both the process of recovery and transactions with recovery capital must be measured on timescales that make it possible to analyze changes in the recovery process as they unfold within each individual. That is, our measurement of recovery should allow description of the process and outcomes of successful recovery for each individual, and the ways that those processes may change (i.e., the dynamics of the process) in that person over time and context. We must also ensure that our understanding of recovery capital is sufficiently robust to capture the way that the resources that support recovery and recovery well-being vary between and within individuals over time and across contexts.