Changing Careers: Becoming Clean and Sober in a Therapeutic Community

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Abstract
Substance abuse remains a major threat to public health. Recovery is complex and variable, occurring with and without intervention. Therapeutic communities (TC) offer a unique long-term approach to recovery. The purpose of this study was to describe the experience of individuals in a TC. Grounded theory provides the methodological basis for the study. Interviews were conducted with 13 individuals in 3 settings. The findings indicate that recovery is analogous to changing careers and suggest a theory that explicates incremental stages in the redirection of the self to achieve a more productive lifestyle. Whereas TCs often purport to bring about character change, the findings of this study emphasize the importance of residual strengths of the previous self-strengths that must be valued to achieve success.