The Recovery Model is an approach for substance dependence that emphasizes and supports a teen’s potential for recovery. Recovery can be seen within the model as a personal journey requiring hope, a secure base, supportive relationships, empowerment, social inclusion, coping skills, and finding meaning. A number of standardized measures have been developed to assess aspects of recovery.

Elements of Recovery

It has been emphasized that each individual teen’s journey to recovery is a deeply personal and individual process, as well as being related to an individual's community and society. A number of features have been proposed as common core elements:

•   Hope

  • Finding and nurturing hope has been described as the key to recovery. It is said to include not just optimism but a sustainable belief in oneself and a willingness to persevere through uncertainty and setbacks. Hope may start at a certain turning point, or emerge gradually as a small and fragile feeling, and may fluctuate with despair. It is said to involve daring to trust in yourself and other people and to risk disappointment, failure and further hurt.

      

   

•  Secure base

• A good home, financial security, freedom from violence, and proper healthcare have also been proposed as foundations to recovery.

  
  

•  Supportive relationships

  
  

• A common aspect of recovery is said to be the presence of others who believe in the person's potential to recover, and who stand by them. While mental health professionals can offer a particular limited kind of relationship and help foster hope, relationships with friends, family and the community are said to often be of wider and longer-term importance. Group therapy with those who may be on a journey of recovery, can be of particular importance. Those who share the same values and outlooks more generally may also be particularly important. It is said that one-way relationships based on being helped can actually be devaluing, and that reciprocal relationships and mutual support networks can be of more value to self-esteem and recovery.

  
  

• Empowerment and Inclusion

• Empowerment and self-determination are said to be important to recovery, including having control. This can mean developing the confidence for independent assertive decision-making and proper help-seeking.

  
  

• Coping strategies

• The development of personal coping strategies (including self-management or self-help) is said to be an important element. This can involve making use of medication or psychotherapy if the teen is fully informed and listened to, including about adverse effects and about which methods fit with the teen’s life and their journey of recovery. Developing coping and problem solving skills to manage individual traits and problem issues may require a person becoming their own expert, in order to identify key stress points and possible crisis points, and to understand and develop personal ways of responding and coping.