A Stabilizing and Destabilizing Social World: Close Relationships and Recovery Processes in SUD

This qualitative study reports on a thematic analysis of the role that close relationships may play in recovery processes following SUD. Inspired by a framework of research involving service users, interviews with 30 participants who had fully recovered were conducted by interviewers with first-hand experience of the topic of focus. The findings are summarized through a superordinate theme that we have called “a stabilizing and destabilizing social world,” and three broad constituent themes: (a) being entangled in difficult relationships; (b) people provide essential support and stability; and (c) we become different people along the pathway of our lives. We relate our findings to experiential knowledge generated from a recovery perspective, highlight reflexive processes involved in carrying out the research, and discuss implications and limitations of the present study.