6: Growth, Coping and Transformation

Psychological growth has been defined as both ‘the potential to cultivate inner potentialities, seek out optimal challenges, and integrate new experiences into the self-concept’ (Baldwin & Landau, 2014, p. 162) and as ‘the experience of positive change that occurs as a result of highly challenging life crises’ (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004, p. 1). In the Growth, Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning in Life, Empowerment (G-CHIME) model of addiction recovery, both perspectives are accommodated, and growth is considered as the positive psychological change that happens after facing challenging life events as well as the ongoing developmental processes that contribute to flourishing. It is a facilitating component that encourages the development of others with recent research having identified thriving in addiction recovery to have a growth-oriented component, as well as suggesting there is a potential link with identity and seeing oneself as a ‘person in recovery’ (Gutierrez et al., 2022). In linked research, growth is linked with finding meaning, empowerment, motivation, spirituality, appreciation in life, positive coping and valued relationships (Haroosh & Freedman, 2017; Henson et al., 2021; Slade et al., 2019). Given the breadth of its associations, it is reasonable to conclude that growth is an important ingredient for recovery that keeps a person striving to live a good life. This hypothesis is supported by research suggesting that addiction recovery itself is an antecedent to greater growth in life (Haroosh & Freedman, 2017). Similarly, it has been found that compensatory growth leads to stronger intentions to seek support (Burnette et al., 2019) which is not only important in early recovery but also in later recovery when challenging situations are encountered (Gutierrez et al., 2022). Moreover, through growth, it has been suggested that an individual can find a meaning in recovery that is fitting to them based on their personal circumstances and experiences (Slade et al., 2019). The value of this has been synthesised in the extended transformational model (ETM), with the inclusion of mastery for the personal development needed to ensure a good level of well-being and life satisfaction (Ogilvie & Carson, 2021a).