Many of those in the burgeoning field of recovery coaching find that their own past drug use can become an asset in helping others overcome addiction. iStockPhoto // Jacob Wackerhausen

listing addiction on your resume

One man’s stigma is another man’s… professional asset? Recent research in the Journal of Applied Social Sciences explores how firsthand experiences with drug use and recovery—widely perceived as stigmatizing—can yield social and professional advantages in the emerging field of “Recovery Coaching.”

Joseph W. Silcox and Evan Stewart, the study’s authors, draw on interviews with 22 people in long-term recovery from drug use, including 15 working as certified recovery coaches. Their conversations revealed a striking contrast in how people managed their drug use history. Some respondents employed conventional stigma management techniques, such as attempting to conceal their past substance use. But others, typically coaches who had been in the business for a long time, talked about their past differently. This group described their past with drugs as a credential and an asset in the profession. Recovery coaches explained that their firsthand knowledge surrounding drug use and recovery helped them know where to refer clients, fostered connections with current drug users, and offered a compelling personal narrative to invoke empathy from law enforcement. This process represents what Silcox and Stewart call the “professionalization of stigma,” a novel stigma management strategy that can emerge when institutional and market forces reward rather than punish the disclosure of traditionally stigmatizing characteristics.