Chapter 23 Recovery Capital: What You Already Have

Walking home from the attorney’s office. I’d just finished my third debt-settlement meeting. My head was spinning.

On the train home, I caught myself thinking: “What do I still have?”

Debt, obviously. My job, barely holding. My family relationships, on a thread. Once I start counting losses, I can’t stop.

I noticed the notebook in my pocket. Inside were three weeks of little check marks: days I didn’t gamble.

Maybe that counts too, I thought. I’d been counting only what I’d lost. Things I still have are also on the list.

What recovery capital is

There’s a concept in addiction research called “recovery capital.” It’s the sum of everything available to a person recovering from addiction.

It’s not just money or things. It includes what’s inside you, the people around you, the foundations of daily life, beliefs and community. All of it.

Research shows people with more recovery capital have more stable recoveries from addiction. People with less recovery capital have a harder time.

Recovery capital isn’t fixed. You can grow it. Even if one area looks depleted, you can grow another. If one category is completely empty, you can build another.

Recovery capital roughly falls into four categories.

Internal capital (what’s inside you)
Social capital (connections with people)
Physical capital (the foundations of daily life)
Cultural capital (beliefs, values, community)

Taking them in turn.

Internal capital: what’s inside you

Internal capital is the resources you already carry. These are the easiest to miss, because they don’t look like “resources.”

Examples

Health (physical, mental)
What you’ve learned from past experience
Experience of getting through hard things
Self-awareness when it shows up
Having stuck with something
Willingness to learn, willingness to change
Moments of stepping back and seeing yourself
Ability to put things into words
Moments when you can laugh
Being able to get up in the morning
Being able to eat
Being able to go to work

Recognizing what’s “already there”

People with addiction are bad at calling their own internal capital “real.” The ones who feel “I have nothing” usually have quite a bit.

The fact that you’re reading this book is evidence of internal capital. The pull to look for something. The willingness to consider change. The attention span to read this far.

These are already inside you. You don’t have to build them from zero.

An internal capital inventory

Write some of these down.

What state is my body in right now?
What’s something I’ve “kept going with” in the past, even when it was hard?
What’s honestly not bad about me?
What do I enjoy? (Even if it was years ago)
When did “I want to change” show up recently?

Some of these you can’t answer. That’s fine. The ones you can answer are your current internal capital.

Social capital is the people around you. Family, friends, coworkers, clinicians, peers in recovery, neighbors, community members.

Examples

Immediate and extended family
Friends (old friends, current friends)
Coworkers, managers, direct reports
Clinicians, counselors, social workers
Peers in support groups (GA, QuitMate, etc.)
Attorneys or counselors helping with debt
People from hobbies or interests
Neighbors, regulars at local places
People you’ve met online

”Broken” and “not broken”

Over the course of addiction, relationships break. Not all of them. If there’s even one thin thread still connected, that’s social capital. If you genuinely feel zero, count clinicians, counselors, and support group staff as “future social capital.”

Social capital takes time to build, and pays back more stability in recovery. Methods have been covered across the book:

Rebuild with family through actions (Chapter 19)
Ask for help (Chapter 10)
Attend GA or support groups (Chapter 21)
Participate in communities like QuitMate

Once you have one, the second and third get easier.

Physical capital: the foundation

Physical capital is what materially and financially holds your life together. Some people are close to zero here. If it’s not zero, make sure you see it.

Examples

A place to live (owned, rented, with family)
A job and income
Basics of living (furniture, appliances, clothes)
Food, water, hygiene
Transportation (a car, a bike, a transit pass)
A phone and a laptop
Health insurance and basic social supports
Some savings, even small

Even with debt, you have capital

Having debt doesn’t cancel physical capital. If you have a place to live, a job, and health insurance, those are physical capital. Even if things feel like they’re trending to zero, name what’s still there.

Keep balance between “what’s gone” and “what’s still here.” If you only track what’s gone, you stop seeing what’s still here.

If physical capital is near zero

Some people have lost the job, the housing, and the insurance. When that’s the state, use public safety nets.

State Medicaid for healthcare
SNAP (food assistance)
State rental or utility assistance programs
Homeless services and shelters
American Job Centers and state workforce programs
County human services

These aren’t things “you shouldn’t use.” They are built for people who need them.

See Chapter 21 (treatment options), Chapter 17 (debt), and Chapter 18 (legal options) for relevant resources.

Cultural capital: beliefs, values, community

Cultural capital is the values you care about, the beliefs you hold, and the communities you belong to. This counts as capital too.

Examples

“What kind of person do I want to be” values
Beliefs that matter to you
Religion, philosophy, a worldview
The culture of where you grew up
Movies, books, music that speak to you
Habits you inherited from family
Identities you hold: parent, partner, child, professional

Cultural capital is “a story that holds you up”

People live inside a sense of “I’m in this kind of story.” When addiction takes over, that story collapses. It shrinks to “I’m an addict, that’s all there is to me.”

Cultural capital is the presence of other stories.

“I’m a parent who shows up for my kids”
“I’ve held down a job”
“I’m the kind of person who calms down when I listen to this album”
“I’ve lived by these values”

These stories remember the version of you that existed before addiction took over. In recovery, you can return to those stories.

Noticing cultural capital

Write down things you usually don’t put into words.

What values have I cared about?
What did I get obsessed with as a kid?
Where do I want to return to, who do I want to see again
What can I say about “this is the kind of person I am”

Some people can’t write any of these. If you can’t, build them. Cultural capital can also grow from zero.

Taking stock

Using all four categories, take stock of your recovery capital. You don’t need to fill it all in. Write what you can.

[Internal capital]

[Physical capital]

[Cultural capital]

When you finish, look at the whole thing. Things you thought you didn’t have start showing up.

What’s empty, you can grow. What’s there, you can lean on more. It’s rare for any category to be fully zero.

”What’s here” over “what’s missing”

The addicted brain likes to emphasize what’s missing.

Lost money
Broken relationships
Time that’s gone
Things you didn’t do

The longer your attention sits there, the slower recovery moves. Looking at “missing” drains you.

Looking at “what’s here” gives some of it back.

Today, I ate
Today, I talked to someone
Today, I didn’t gamble
Today, I read a page

Small, but on the “here” side. Checking “here” every day grows the felt sense of your own recovery capital.

References

Granfield, R., & Cloud, W. (1999). Coming Clean: Overcoming Addiction Without Treatment. New York University Press.
Cloud, W., & Granfield, R. (2008). Conceptualizing recovery capital: Expansion of a theoretical construct. Substance Use & Misuse, 43(12-13), 1971-1986.
White, W., & Cloud, W. (2008). Recovery capital: A primer for addictions professionals. Counselor, 9(5), 22-27.
Best, D., & Laudet, A.B. (2010). The Potential of Recovery Capital. RSA Projects.
Laudet, A.B., & White, W.L. (2008). Recovery capital as prospective predictor of sustained recovery, life satisfaction, and stress among former poly-substance users. Substance Use & Misuse, 43(1), 27-54.
Vaillant, G.E. (2003). A 60-year follow-up of alcoholic men. Addiction, 98(8), 1043-1051.
Hennessy, E.A. (2017). Recovery capital: A systematic review of the literature. Addiction Research & Theory, 25(5), 349-360.