Views of people in recovery:Resilience, Recovery Capital and

Social Networks

Resilience: Recovery: Social NetworksRecovery capital• “the quantity and quality of both internal and external

resources that a person can bring to bear on the initiation and maintenance of recovery” (W. White, 2006)

Recovery indicators for mental health:

Redefinition of self Supportive relationships Hope and commitment to recovery A niche in a community Skills to sustain recovery Feeling empowered and making a contribution Sense of responsibility and control

Hope and CommitmentI love my recovery. If I could extend further into the horizon my

peace of mind, knowing it was going to be there in a year, it would really help.

It’s really special to have that gift of awareness. A bit of peace inside me. A bit of fear as well.

I love my recovery, I love my life now.

Peace of mindQuality of life

Re-definition of SelfI don’t want to just recover from dependencies, I want to

recover from behaviours. I want the old me to be dead, safely in the past.

Dancing at Serenity Cafe while sober was the best day of my life, I woke up the next day full of this thought that I had done that.

Didn’t happen in treatment, it happened when I started finding my place in life.

ProcessPractice

Supportive RelationshipsThe Serenity Cafe is a great place to learn about

relationships.... It’s good for me to be about people who are healthy in recovery.

The deciding factor was meetings – other people in recovery.

Just surround myself with good people in recoveryHearing what other people had been through and seeing

them integrate into society and able to laugh

Peer supportRole models

Supportive RelationshipsI miss my wee pal A, because I’ve never been that honest with

anyone else. We were two addicts trusting each other in order to make it. We shared everything, money, things that have happened in our lives. He would be on one sofa and I would be on another, huddled with our duvets and sleeping bags. I had to move away. If I had stayed it would have been impossible.

LossRepair

Skills to Sustain RecoverySorting out my finances, houses, relationships, taking

responsibility. I need roots in life. I’m aware of the parts of my life I need to work on.

There’s no possibility I’m using tomorrow. I’ve learned what I have to do, I’ve been through pain, anger, I’ve learned I can get through what life throws at me as long as I do what I need to do.

Re-framing old skillsHonesty

Skills to Sustain RecoveryYou have to work for personal growth. I was emotionally raw. I

was nuts! The scariest part of my life was the first few months of recovery.

I feel really behind a lot of people the same age as me, kind of emotionally stunted.

It’s such an incremental process you’re not always aware of your own progress. You’re able to do things that before you might never have been able to do.

Courage

A niche in a CommunityI need community involvement and a sense of purpose. The

Serenity Cafe feels like inclusion and a feeling of giving something back.

I didn’t even know what I liked doing, no idea who or what I was.... might sound really dull and silly to some people but before this I had never read a whole book and I love it.

Shared experience

Feeling Empowered, Making a Contribution

It took me out of my comfort zone, the dancing and things. In the planning committee our ideas are listened to, you feel you are making a contribution and you feel valued.

Affirmation

Sense of Responsibility and ControlI’m my main motivator in recovery, it’s for me, I do service for

me. I was so sick and tired of being the person I was. I don’t want to hate myself, I want to forgive myself. That is what I want for me which is why I do so much.

Serenity Cafe gave me responsibility, addicts don’t cope with that very well, I would have run a mile from that in the past. Not much over a year ago, handling all that cash behind the bar, that would have been in my pocket.

RespectExpectation

Resilience: Recovery: Social NetworksSecure base

Friendships

Values and Beliefs

Learning

Hobbies and Interests

Social competence

Hope and Commitment

Supportive relationships

A niche in a community

Skills to sustain recovery

Sense of responsibility and control

Redefinition of self

Secure BaseWas glad to move, too many memories in my old area. And I

was about to lose everything.Relocating from WC when out of treatment was the best

possible thing. It was important to get away from the area where people were still using.

Break away

Values and Beliefs• Spiritual aspect of recovery networks. • Acceptance, forgiveness.• Hope = faith?

Open

Hobbies and Interests• Stage of recovery• Social networks with others in recovery

Imagination

Social Networks: Recovery: Resilience

• Peer support• Role models• Image of recovery : what is

possible• Shared experience• Opportunity to give