Embarking on Recovery: When Does Stigma End? Investigating the Experiences of Discrimination and How These Affect Aspirations in Recovery from Substance Misuse

The thesis has been completed in partial fulfilment of a Doctoral training course for Clinical Psychology. It focuses on an area of personal interest to the author, developed through working with the target group both before and during completion of the course. The first paper outlines a literature review on stigma and discrimination for those with a history of drug and alcohol addiction. Paper two presents empirical research carried out to explore how personal experiences, or a fear of discrimination, impacts upon the aspirations of those entering recovery from substance misuse. Paper three comprises a reflective account of the author’s learning experiences and future planning for further research. The literature review highlighted that many of those in treatment or recovery from addiction, have experienced discrimination in various settings, such as housing, employment and healthcare. These experiences often led to increased anticipation of discrimination and caused individuals to conceal their history of addiction in order to reduce the possibility of negative experiences within recovery. The literature review highlighted a lack of understanding in how such experiences impact upon aspirations for recovery, and a qualitative research project was conducted to explore this issue, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology. Three super-ordinate themes and ten sub-ordinate themes emerged from the data, collected from seven semi-structured interviews. The final paper reflects upon the author’s learning experiences during the research, including the challenges that were faced in completing the project.