Regardless of what causes addiction, recovery is possible for anyone.

Scot Governments Recovery Philosophy, the precursor to the Quality Principles (2014) tells us that everyone ‘deserves to recover’. Statistics indicate that the majority of people go on to resolve their alcohol and other drug problems (White, 2008). North Ayrshires Working Definition of Recovery explains 'Recovery from alcohol and other drug problems is a deeply personal journey which anyone is capable of embarking upon.’ At its very least, recovery means to improve and progress; while North Ayrshire Alcohol and Drug Partnership is ambitious for all service users, even small changes can be considered to contribute toward an individuals’ recovery. Recovery is possible for anyone.

Mutual aid/12 step meetings (Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous) can have just as significant an impact on recovery as Cognitive Behaviour Therapies and Motivational Enhancement Therapy.

Project MATCH (1998), one of the biggest studies into addiction treatment explored the matching effect of individual to treatment. The broad findings included the fact that while no matching effects existed, 12 step facilitated treatment, MET and CBT were equally effective though longer term abstinence was more prevalent in twelve step samples. Other studies have found similar results in terms of treatment efficacy (White, 2008).