Life in recovery from addiction in Canada: Technical report.

It is becoming increasingly understood that recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs is a personal journey comprising many different pathways (Kaskutas et al., 2014; Kelly & Hoeppner, 2015; Notley et al., 2015; White, 2007). In an effort to gain an understanding about the experiences of individuals in recovery from addiction, a number of countries have conducted Life in Recovery (LIR) surveys, including the United States in 2012 (Laudet, 2013), Australia in 2014 (Turning Point et al., 2015) and the United Kingdom in 2015 (Best et al., 2015). Results from these surveys suggested that the transition from active addiction to recovery is associated with improvements across many areas of life affecting individuals, families and communities. In Canada, there was very little evidence about the experiences of individuals in recovery from addiction, so the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) together with our partners conducted the first ever nationwide survey of individuals in recovery from addiction in Canada.