People who have had issues with alcohol are being invited to participate in an anonymous UNSW study which is hoping to find out how people overcome the habit.

Researchers at the UNSW Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) have discovered from a global review of alcohol recovery studies that more than 50% of people in alcohol recovery in many developed countries have not accessed formal treatment.

But Professor Alison Ritter, Director of the Drug Policy Modelling Program (DPMP) at SPRC, said research on this topic in Australia was limited.

“There have been no estimates to date of how many Australians recover from alcohol problems without accessing treatment,” Professor Ritter said.

“We have a study underway right now to help us estimate the recovery rate in Australia.”

Research assistant with the DPMP Richard Mellor said the stories of people who overcome their alcohol habit by themselves are often not talked about amongst researchers and treatment providers.

“People overcome problems with alcohol in many different ways. Some of this is with formal treatment, but we know there are lots of people who don’t access formal treatment yet recover,” he said.

“By tapping into the wisdom of people who have changed their alcohol consumption on their own, we will begin to understand how to deliver treatment in a more grounded and creative way.”

Researchers at SPRC would like to learn more about the experiences and stories of people who have overcome their alcohol addiction, dependency, or habit by themselves.

If this sounds like you, please contact Richard Mellor by email: richard.mellor@student.unsw.edu.au or phone: +612 9385 5797. Contact is anonymous and does not obligate anyone to co-operate any further with this study.