How Social Relationships Influence Substance Use Disorder Recovery: A Collaborative Narrative Study

Abstract

Individuals with a substance use disorder (SUD) often have fewer social support network resources than those without SUDs. This qualitative study examined the role of social relationships in achieving and maintaining stable recovery after many years of SUD. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants, each of whom had been diagnosed with a SUD and each of whom had been abstinent for at least 5 years. A resource group of peer consultants in long-term recovery from SUDs contributed to the study planning, preparation, and initial analyses. The relationship that most participants described as helpful for initiating abstinence was recognition by a peer or a caring relationship with a service provider or sibling. These findings suggest that, to reach and maintain abstinence, it is important to maintain positive relationships and to engage self-agency to protect oneself from the influences of negative relationships. Substance use disorder service providers should increase the extent to which they involve the social networks of clients when designing new treatment approaches. Service providers should also focus more on individualizing services to meet their clients on a personal level, without neglecting professionalism or treatment strategies.

Qualitative Assessment of Patients’ Perspectives and Needs from Community Pharmacists in Substance Use Disorder Management

“…Non-judgmental communication was the prevailing characteristic among community pharmacists who provided positive experiences for participants. This nding supports the integral role of social relations and support for the recovery and treatment retention of patients living with SUD (64,65).…”

Functional and structural social support, substance use and sexual orientation from a nationally representative sample of US adults

“…Functional social support indicates the quality of social support received, which is important for approaches in decreasing SUD. Caring, positive relationships that include informational support and promotion of self-efficacy are linked to reduced substance use initiation [21,[52][53][54], and higher functional social support has been found to increase efficacy of substance use treatment interventions and identified as an indicator of entry and retention in treatment [55][56][57]. Due to the cross-sectional nature of our data, we are unable to determine whether higher social provision results in lower SUD or if the presence of SUD results in lower social provision due to loss of support resources related to substance use.…”

Analysis of associations between emotions and activities of drug users and their addiction recovery tendencies from social media posts using structural equation modeling

“…Family support, especially for adolescents in long term residential programs has been proven to be necessary for successful recovery from addiction [ 66 ]. Studies have also showed that having a strong social and family resource improves the chances of addiction recovery [ 67 – 70 ].…”

“…Family support, especially for adolescents in long term residential programs has been proven to be necessary for successful recovery from addiction [66]. Studies have also showed that having a strong social and family resource improves the chances of addiction recovery [67][68][69][70]. Self-development efforts encompassing activities that lead to mental and physical well-being, such as regular exercise, meditation, and yoga have been observed to help heal the body and mind [71,72].…”