Life in Recovery: A Families’ Perspective

ABSTRACTAlthough the Life in Recovery series has provided valuable insights into the transformation of the lives of people in recovery and has helped to frame that by recovery method and approach, by gender and by location, it has not assessed the impact of recovery on those immediately surrounding the person in recovery. The Families Living in Addiction and Recovery (FLAR) survey was an attempt to address this by inviting family members to report on their experiences, as witnesses and in their own right as people going through their own version of recovery. Based on two half-day workshops in London and Sheffield, a revised survey for family members was developed that assessed the family member’s observations of recovery and their own personal journey. In total, 1,565 surveys were completed and returned, reflecting much of the positive experience of the previous surveys. They also showed the extent of adverse effects of addiction and the subsequent benefits of recovery to family members. However, recovery...