Turning points toward drug addiction recovery: contextualizing underlying dynamics of change

Abstract

Background

A life course approach recognizes the role of turning points in adding twists and turns in individuals’ addiction recovery processes. The notion of certain key life events that trigger turning point experiences offers a valuable theoretical construct for understanding processes of change. The current study aimed to identify turning points and assess the role of contextual dynamics in generating long-term changes, based on lived experiences of persons in drug addiction recovery.

Method

A qualitative research design was applied using a Lifeline Interview Method (LIM), allowing a retrospective lens to elicit recovery narratives. Purposive sampling was utilized to compose a heterogeneous group of thirty persons in self-defined drug addiction recovery in Flanders (Belgium). An interpretative phenomenological approach was adopted during a thematic analysis, grounding the research claims in respondents’ lived experiences.

Results

Key moments of change that were reported by participants are: (1) adverse drug-induced experiences; (2) becoming a parent; (3) ‘hitting rock bottom’; (4) (dis)engagement of social networks and environments; and (5) addiction treatment. The findings illustrate the role of contextual dynamics that can facilitate (or hamper) experiencing these life events as turning points toward change.

Conclusions

This study contradicts the notion of a single event or turning point causing abrupt changes in individuals’ addiction trajectories. Contextual dynamics and meaning-making processes simultaneously influence whether specific life events can facilitate change. Treatment providers, researchers, and policymakers should take into account the process-based, situational, and relational nature of recovery.

Keywords:

• Drug use
• addiction
• recovery
• life course framework
• turning points

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all participants of the REC-PATH study and especially those who openly shared their recovery stories during the qualitative lifeline interviews, as well as the organizations that supported us in recruiting individuals in addiction recovery. We would also like to thank the editor and reviewer for their valuable feedback.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

REC-PATH is a collaborative project supported by the European Research Area Network on Illicit Drugs (ERANID). The current study conducted in Belgium was funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office [BELSPO: DR/M6/80] and the Research Foundation – Flanders [FWO: G0H5217N].