Research project Recovery and identity – a 10-year follow-up

The project is a 10-year follow-up of clients who have been in treatment for problems with alcohol and/or drugs (AOD) and who participated in previous projects highlighting important factors for maintaining positive change, in connection with completed treatment and five years later.

Research on alcohol and/or drug (AOD) problems continuously describe recovery from AOD problems as a long process often including reoccurring relapses and treatment interventions. Follow-up studies on AOD problems are dominantly performed with quantitative methods. However, research on how persons identify and define themselves in relation to AOD problems over time has been identified as an important but also under-researched field. The outlined project refers to a 10-year follow-up study of clients treated for AOD problems who participated in previous projects were the clients were interviewed on important factors for positive change, both a short time after treatment and five years later. Since interview data are available for how the clients viewed their recovery process five and ten years ago, the present project can shed light on identity and recovery processes and how the subjective perception on these processes change over time.