Perceived Relapse Risks Associated With Emotionally Impactful Events: Connection Counts More

How do people perceive emotionally significant life events as impacting relapse risk? Investigating perceived risk is important for at least two reasons. First, perceived risk of relapse is associated with actual risk; individuals are insightful about their own recovery. Second, perceptions, whether accurate or not, can influence the behavior of individuals in recovery and those who want to provide support.

We measured relapse risk perception using 16 vignettes that depicted emotionally significant events (4 positive-social, 4 negative-social, 4 positive-nonsocial, and 4 negative-nonsocial). We recruited 224 participants (56.3% female, 77.7% White) with a history of substance use problems and 215 participants (46.0% female, 78.1% White) with no history of substance use problems.

On average, positive events were judged to reduce relapse risk, and negative events were judged to increase risk. Social events (positive and negative) were judged to be more impactful than those not explicitly involving close relationships. Participants with a history of substance use problems were more likely to perceive an increase in relapse risk for some positive nonsocial events than were individuals with no such history.

Social experiences are perceived to be powerful risk and protective factors for relapse. Those with a history of substance use problems are more likely to judge some positive events as increasing relapse risk than are those without that history. Understanding the mismatch between perceived risk among those in recovery and their support systems has the potential to improve recovery outcomes.