I Think Therefore I am: Social Identity as a Path to Wellness and Recovery
By Tiffany Cheng
Social support and social groups have been long integrated in the pathway to wellness and recovery. For example, you may look for “gym buddies” when you want to work out and no one can deny the benefits of social support when you’re going through a difficult time or recovering from an illness. Johann Hari emphasises that “the opposite of addiction is not sobriety, the opposite of addiction is connection” (TED, 2016, 14:21) – in that love and support are the most important aspects when helping someone who is suffering from substance use. Simply belonging to one or more social groups or networks is supportive of recovery, and this impact can be amplified if that group has social norms and attitudes that proliferate recovery. For example, in people recovering from alcohol use disorder, those who developed a relationship with a non-drinking peer were less likely to drink in a 12-month follow-up (Litt et al., 2007; 2009).
Further research has extended this and examined recovery as a process of social identity change – social identities being the parts of your self-concept derived from perceived group memberships (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). The Social Identity Model of Recovery (SIMOR; Best et al., 2015) has been proposed as a pathway to recover from illnesses such as substance use disorders and eating disorders (Blondé & Falomir-Pichester, 2021; Cunningham & Godinho, 2021; McNamara & Parsons, 2016). There has also been some preliminary research expanding its use into recovery from mood disorders (Cruwys et al., 2014). According to this model, recovering from addiction is a process of social identity change where your most dominant identity shifts from being a member of a group with norms and values revolving around substance abuse, to being a member of a group with norms and values that encourage recovery. Subsequently, the identity shift internalises these norms and values which then impact attitudes and behaviours. In other words, if being a “recovering alcoholic” becomes a predominant part of who you are, you will mirror the behaviours associated with this identity (i.e., abstinence). These “recovery identities” have had a lot of support as a pathway to recovery and have been associated with many well-being outcomes (Bathish et al., 2017). Moreover, this research brings a new meaning to Decartes’ saying “I think therefore I am”.
This model has been primarily examined within the context of recovery from substance and behavioural addictions, but as research suggests, social identity has a clear influence on attitudes and behaviours. This model may be used to move beyond recovery and towards more proactive applications. Social identity change may be important to foster the positive attitudes and behaviours necessary to thrive (i.e., high emotional, psychological and social well-being) rather than languish (i.e., the absence of well-being; Keyes, 2002). This may be especially important for graduate students, who are more likely to experience high levels of stress and negative well-being (Allen et al., 2021). To illustrate, let’s transform a languishing graduate student into a thriving graduate student using the social identity model of recovery. The social identity of a graduate student may be associated with positive norms (e.g., academic, high-achieving) and values (e.g., valuing high grades). As well, it can be associated with negative norms such as a high-stress life, being incredibly busy, and a fear of failure. To become a thriving graduate student, one could adopt more positive norms and values such as a good work-life balance, learning from feedback rather than focusing on a grade, and having a healthy way to cope with stress as well as associating with other thriving graduate students. Notably, the name of the social identity is immaterial but ultimately, we seek to create a new social identity and group with norms and values that emphasise thriving over languishing. Through this paradigm we can see how social identity may be used as a path to wellness as well as recovery.
References
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