Abstract
Addiction was formally classified as a primary mental health disorder in the third version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental health disorders (DSM). Now in its fifth edition, the DSM-5 informs contemporary clinical understanding on the behavioural and psychological effects of addiction and substance use disorder (Robinson & Adinoff, 2016). Models of mental health recovery highlight the components considered important to the process of overcoming the detrimental effects of a mental health disorder, being concerned with the resources that an affected individual has and can develop to help them function successfully. The recovery model approach challenges the reliance on pharmacology alone to abate the symptoms of mental illness, instead advocating an individual can accomplish behavioural and psychological change using their own self-actualising potential (Davidson, Rowe, Bellamy, & Delphin-Rittmon, 2021). There are many benefits to this. It offers a safer treatment profile, stops protracted reliance on medication, eliminates medication side effects and can provide tools that promote and safeguard future wellbeing (Dell, Long, & Mancini, 2021).