Education and careers were our way out

Polysubstance use and lived experience: new insights into what is needed

“…Personal narratives as exemplified in the study by Lynch et al [16 ▪ ] reinforce the need for pathways to education and long-term employment as a stabilizing mechanism for people with a history of substance use disorder. In a narrative published in the Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment , the co-authors detail how education and jobs were critical to supporting their own recovery and development as addiction treatment professionals [16 ▪ ].…”

“…Building on recommendations by participants in the Vancouver mothers focus groups, some options would be to provide additional professional development opportunities, or longer contracts, even if a nonprofit or community-based organization cannot offer higher hourly wages [14 ▪▪ ]. Personal narratives as exemplified in the study by Lynch et al [16 ▪ ] reinforce the need for pathways to education and long-term employment as a stabilizing mechanism for people with a history of substance use disorder. In a narrative published in the Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment , the co-authors detail how education and jobs were critical to supporting their own recovery and development as addiction treatment professionals [16 ▪ ].…”

“…Most of the articles we highlight are qualitative or even narrative, which makes sense as qualitative work and personal narrative can showcase the rich, personal value that peers and lived experience contribute to understanding [12 ▪ ,16 ▪ ]. However, quantitative studies also show the values of peer support in substance use disorder treatment and addiction recovery, as a Cochrane review of anonymous 12-step groups found [17].…”

From existing to living: Exploring the meaning of recovery and a sober life after a long duration of a substance use disorder

“…To some extent, recovery is a personal process, where the self-determination theory (SDT) (Deci and Ryan, 2012;Ryan and Deci, 2017) may provide a framework to depict a five-stage transformation from not recognising a problem ("amotivation"), to regulating, for instance, sobriety through external sources to the introjecting, identification and integration of new behaviours, attitudes and values to build a new identity. The importance of creating a selfidentity as a non-addict has been pointed out in previous studies (Chen, 2022;Dingle et al, 2015;McIntosh and Mc Keganey, 2000;Reith and Dobbie, 2012) and reviews (Subhani et al, 2022), notably in terms of searching for a better and more meaningful life (Laudet, 2007;Lynch et al, 2022;Wangensteen and Hystad, 2022) as a pathway out of (self)stigmatisation (Burges et al, 2021;Fraser et al, 2017;Pienaas and Dilkes-Frayne, 2017) and searching for non-drug-using relationships to strengthen a new identity (Fomiatti et al, 2017). Moreover, the SDT model of motivation and change has a parallel in stage models of identity development in adolescence (Marcia, 1980), a development that has been shown (Schoenberger et al, 2021) to be a relevant issue in the understanding of recovery from SUD.…”