Natural Recovery from Addiction: Some Social-Psychological Processes of Untreated Recovery

This is a report of an exploratory in-depth study of the social-psychological processes of untreated recovery. Data for the study comes from focused interviews with a sample of 201 ex-addicts (half untreated, half treated) located by means of the snowball referral method. Findings indicate that personal motivations to stop using opiates usually arise out of the lifestyle, police activities and environment of illicit opiate use—out of the “changes” addicts experience trying to maintain expensive habits. Individuals respond differently to such changes. Some sink into profound despair and act when they are forced to. Others weigh the consequence of future opiate use and make rational decisions to change, while still others just drift into something else because their commitment to opiate use and the lifestyle was only tenuous. Once addicts decide to quit, they must leave the scene, break all ties with opiate users and create new interests, new social networks, new social identities. Some persons do this by their own efforts while others use existing institutions. Six patterns of recovery were discerned and it was concluded that the “maturing out” concept is not sufficient to describe all the different variations. In addition to maturation, we found that some addicts become converts to religious, social or communal causes, some retire (give up the drug but maintain the lifestyle). Others use opiates in certain situations and change when the situation changes and some move on to other drugs (usually alcohol).