ENVIRONMENTAL EVENTS SURROUNDING NATURAL RECOVERY FROM ALCOHOL-RELATED PROBLEMS

Environmental events influence relapse and recovery patterns in treate d alcoholics, and the present study investigated the role of events in recoveries achieved without treatment. Subjects were 21 abstinent and 18 active problem drinkers; none had received treatment, and recovere d subjects had abstained an average of 6 years. During structured inte rviews, event occurrences were assessed during a 3-year period that be gan 2 years before the attainment of abstinence by recovered subjects and were compared with event occurrences during a matched 3-year inter val for active drinkers, which equated the groups on the length of rec all. Collaterals verified subjects' reports of their drinking practice s, events and absence of treatment. Recovered subjects showed (1) heig htened health concerns and a relatively stable work situation during t he year preceding initial abstinence, (2) a reduction in health events following resolution and (3) a decrease in legal events and total neg ative events across the 3 years surrounding resolution. Although quali fied by the relatively small sample and the retrospective, correlation al design, these findings suggest that (1) changes in several areas of functioning evolve over time to motivate initial abstinence and to ma intain continued resolution, and (2) variables that motivate initial b ehavior change differ somewhat from those that maintain it.