FAQS and Terminology

A process of change through which an individual achieves abstinence and improved health, wellness, and quality of life. The experience (a process and a sustained status) through which individuals, families, and communities impacted by severe alcohol and other drugs (AOD) problems utilize internal and external resources to voluntarily resolve these problems, heal the wounds inflicted by AOD-related problems, actively manage their continued vulnerability to such problems, and develop a healthy, productive, and meaningful life (White, 2007).

The name was given to peers who have been specifically trained to provide advanced peer recovery support services in Michigan. A peer recovery coach works with individuals during their recovery journey by linking them to the community and its resources. They serve as a personal guide or mentor, helping the individual overcome personal and environmental obstacles.

Persons having a history of alcohol and drug problems who are in or seeking recovery, including those currently in treatment; as well as family members, significant others, and other supporters and allies (SAMHSA, 2009b).

Non-clinical services that assist individuals and families to recover from alcohol or drug problems. They include social support, linkage to, and coordination among, allied service providers, and a full-range of human services that facilitate recovery and wellness contributing to an improved quality of life. These services can be flexibly staged and may be provided prior to, during, and after treatment. RSS may be provided in conjunction with treatment, or as separate and distinct services, to individuals and families who desire and need them. Professionals, faith-based and community-based groups, and other RSS providers are key components of ROSC (SAMHSA, 2009b).

May occur in a group setting as outlined above (educational groups), or may be used as an independent study, with the provider giving “assignments” to be discussed at the next session.

A term used when a person has both a mental health disorder and a substance use disorder. Both the mental health and the substance use disorders may create significant challenges, but the interactions of these disorders require integrated treatment.

The use of specific medications, in combination with counseling and/or other components of recovery.

Service designed to reduce the probability of developing and exacerbating substance use disorders and/or mental health problems.

An individual who links the recovering person to the community serves as a personal guide or mentor in the process of personal and family recovery and helps remove personal and environmental obstacles.

A method of teaching recovering individuals to recognize and manage relapse warning signs. This includes teaching the individual about the relapse process, and how to manage it, as well as identifying the problems and situations that may cause a relapse (triggers).

A program designed to assist in the recovery from addiction or compulsive behavior, especially a spiritually-oriented program based on the principles of acknowledging one’s personal responsibility and accepting help from a higher power. Examples of such programs include Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, Alateen, Cocaine Anonymous, and Narcotics Anonymous.

A chronic disease, characterized by compulsive (loss of control) substance seeking or using behavior or other behavior despite adverse health, social, or legal consequences to continued use.

Means substance use disorder treatment services that are provided to persons within a hospital setting under medical supervision.

Groups of individuals who share their experience, strength, and hope about recovery from addiction. Often called ― self-help groups, they more technically involve an admission that efforts at self-help have failed and that the help and support of others is needed (Miller and Kurtz, 1994). Mutual aid groups are based on relationships that are personal rather than professional, reciprocal rather than fiduciary, free rather than fee-based, and enduring rather than transient (See Indigenous Healers and Institutions).

Clinical and service practices that have scientific support for their efficacy (work under ideal conditions) and effectiveness (work under real conditions). Advocacy of evidence-based practice is a commitment to use those approaches that have the best scientific support, and in areas where research is lacking, a commitment to measure and use outcomes to promote those practices that have the greatest impact on the quality of life of individuals, families, and communities. One reviewer offered the observation that the growing preoccupation with EBP marks a shift in focus from subjective experience to an objective outcome, raising the possibility that important dimensions of recovery could be lost if healers are transformed into procedural technicians. The concern expressed here is that there may be important aspects of the recovery experience that are not measurable.

Has three dimensions: the healing of individual family members, the healing of family subsystems (adult intimacy needs, parent-child relationships, and sibling relationships), and achieving recovery-conducive boundary transactions with people and institutions outside the family. While the order in which these subsystems heal can vary, family research (Brown and Lewis, 1999) suggests that individual recovery of family members must precede the recovery of the family as a unit (see Trauma of Recovery).

Is the use of medically-monitored, pharmaceutical adjuncts to support recovery from addiction. These include detoxification agents (e.g., clonidine), stabilizing agents (e.g., methadone), aversive agents (e.g., disulfram), antagonizing agents (naloxone), and anti-craving agents (acamprosate, naltrexone). They also include medications used to lower risks of relapse via symptom suppression of one or more co-occurring physical or psychiatric disorders. The use of such medications in the context of treatment is known as pharmacotherapy. The stigma attached to medication-assisted recovery (e.g., methadone) is being countered by wider dissemination of the research supporting its scientific efficacy as well as through the growing participation in recovery advocacy activities of people who have successfully achieved medication-assisted recovery. One goal of such advocacy is to have people in medication-assisted recovery recognized as legitimate members of the recovery community.