Abstract:

For more than 150 years, support for the personal resolution of severe and persistent alcohol and other drug problems in the United States has been provided through three mechanisms: family, kinship, and informal social networks; peer-based recovery mutual aid societies; and professionally directed addiction treatment. This article: 1) briefly reviews the history of these traditional recovery supports, 2) describes the recent emergence of new recovery support institutions and a distinctive, all-inclusive culture of recovery, and 3) discusses the implications of these recent developments for the future of addiction treatment and recovery in the United States.