Well-Being During Recovery from Alcohol and Drug Use Disorders: Improvement in Due Course

Most studies of recovery from alcohol or drug use (AOD) problems have focused on short-term outcomes (<2 years); few examine well-being. In a cross-sectional population survey, individuals with a past problem with drugs or alcohol were asked how long ago the AOD problem was resolved (i.e., time in recovery) and completed several questionnaires on well-being (quality of life, happiness, self-esteem, recovery capital [reflecting the quality of their recovery], psychological distress).

Measures of well-being were higher among individuals with a longer time in recovery in analyses of participants with ≤40 years or ≤5 years in recovery (survey-weighted samples, 1876 and 637, respectively). However, when only individuals with ≤2 years of recovery …