Recovery From Adolescent Substance Use Disorder: Young People in Recovery Describe the Process and Keys to Success in an Alternative Peer Group

Abstract

Though “recovery management” is the current paradigm for substance use disorder treatment, the mechanisms and processes by which adolescents achieve long-term recovery remain undefined. Seeking to learn from those with lived experience, the author conducted an extensive ethnography with participants of an established but previously unstudied recovery support program. The alternative peer group (APG) model blends positive peer influence with clinical practice to help adolescents achieve recovery. This overview manuscript expands the definition of adolescent recovery and identifies treatment and contextual elements that promote the recovery process. A model for adolescent recovery is proposed, and implications for research and practice are discussed.