Wellbeing in Addiction Recovery: Does It Differ across Addictions?

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Addiction Studies
• Public Health

Background:

• Limited research exists on long-term addiction recovery experiences.
• Addictions are often studied in isolation, yet individuals frequently experience multiple substance and behavioral dependencies.
• Current addiction theories do not adequately differentiate between addiction types or account for co-occurring addictions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare affect between individuals with drug and alcohol addictions.
• To explore the changes in Quality of Life (QoL) during long-term addiction recovery.
• To investigate the impact of multiple addictions on psychological health in recovery.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 115 individuals in long-term recovery from addiction via snowball sampling on social media.
• Administered questionnaires assessing QoL (WHOQOL-Bref) and positive and negative affect (PANAS-X).
• Analyzed data to compare affect and QoL based on primary addiction type (drugs vs. alcohol) and presence of multiple addictions.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in affect or coping strategies were found between individuals with primary drug or alcohol addictions.
• A substantial majority (69.7%) reported multiple addictions, including food, sex, internet, and gambling.
• Quality of Life (QoL) demonstrated a positive trend, appearing to improve with increased time in recovery.

Conclusions:

• Addictions, particularly in long-term recovery, share more similarities than differences regarding psychological health.
• The high prevalence of multiple addictions indicates that they should not be studied in isolation.
• Future research and treatment approaches should adopt a more integrated perspective on addiction recovery.