Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery
Texas Tech University
The Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery is committed to achieving six primary goals:
- Quality, long-term recovery for the student population through the creation of a Collegiate Recovery Community.
- Development of resiliency in recovering students who often lack the personal, social, academic, and professional skills necessary to be successful.
- Education about the disease of addiction and effective strategies for the prevention and treatment of its consequences.
Service within the university, local, state, and national communities.
- Creation of an effective replication model that will allow other institutions of higher education to offer similar programs to positively impact their recovering students.
- Research that impacts the way addiction is viewed from an individual, familial, and social perspective, and which will improve treatment success nationwide.
According to a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health, “the current level of binge drinking by U.S. college students is a serious problem” (Wechsler, et al. 2001). These findings would suggest that the environment of most university campuses in the United States is not conducive to, or supportive of, recovery from addictive disorders. The main recovery issue facing a collegiate recovering population is lack of peer support. Adolescents and young adults seeking a college education must attempt to navigate this environment on their own, often without the support of even a small group of their peers. It is difficult for students in recovery to find and develop a substance free social network. Additionally, they must combat the stigma associated with addiction/recovery if they choose to self-disclose.
Additionally, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has recently released research supporting long-term interventions for individuals struggling with chemical addiction. This research correlates the length of time spent in treatment and continuing care services with outcomes in recovery. The longer an individual is participating in formal treatment and continuing care programs designed to support recovery, the more positive the outcome. The Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery provides a place that allows recovering students to extend their participation in a continuing care program, without having to postpone or eliminate the possibility of achieving their educational goals. Recovering students at the Center are enrolled in recovery programming on an average of one to five years. According to research, this should greatly improve their chances at achieving quality, long-term sobriety.
The Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery at Texas Tech University has worked diligently to design a Collegiate Recovery Community that provides a nurturing, affirming environment in which individuals recovering from addictive disorders can find peer support while attaining a college education. Students participating in this community have access to extensive services to support their decision to remain in recovery and to improve their general life skills. Additionally, students involved in the Collegiate Recovery Community attend Twelve Step meetings held regularly on the Texas Tech campus. Through this holistic approach to continuing care for recovering students, the Collegiate Recovery Community is able to address the problems and issues associated with the transitions from high school to college and from active addiction into recovery.
The pairing of education and recovery builds esteem in the students involved with the Collegiate Recovery Community. Their accomplishments translate into reduced problems for society, increased earning potential, heightened community involvement, and broader commitment to service. Many recovering students choose to share their personal histories with their peers, their educators, and their community in an effort to show that addiction is a treatable disease, not a moral weakness.
