Release Date
Geography
Language of Resource
Full Text Available
Open Access / OK to Reproduce
Peer Reviewed
Objective
The concept of recovery capital refers to the sum of resources that a person has available to initiate and continue a recovery process. This concept has not been greatly explored with people with persistent substance use disorder (SUD), whose recovery is often quite long.
Findings/Key points
The analysis paints a portrait of people who, despite their difficulties, managed to use their skills and develop new ones to confront their problems: introspection, perseverance, self-belief, knowledge about recovery, etc. For women in particular, the ability to assert themselves appears to have been a survival tool in their trajectory. For most of the participants, material and financial resources were most lacking in their recovery process. Faced with a precarious financial situation, several women spoke of the need to get organized and be proactive in finding ways to support themselves. Contrary to a deficit-focused perspective, the concept of recovery capital leads us to focus on what is going well in these people’s lives.
Design/methods
We conducted 19 qualitative interviews with 19 people (9 men, 10 women) with persistent SUD to understand the personal strengths they use in their recovery.
