Recovery Viability Theory: Recovery Capital and the Recursive Maintenance of Addiction Recovery
Abstract
Background: Dynamical systems approaches have modeled the nonlinear, discontinuous character of addiction and the recurrence of use. Formal models of addiction recovery have begun to emerge but remain sparse, and they largely represent recovery as a transition to a low or non-consumption state. The long-term maintenance of recovery, including the specific role of recovery capital and the reconstruction of identity and functioning, remains understudied in the dynamical systems literature. Method: This paper adapts viability theory, a branch of mathematics developed to study constrained dynamical systems, as a candidate framework for modeling how recovery is sustained over time. It specifies recovery capital as the factor that configures the viability zone, and extends the framework to account for the recursive, self-modifying character of the recovery process. Results: We propose that recovery constitutes a zone of recovery viability: the set of states from which a person can maintain health and functioning within livable constraints over time. Recovery capital configures the strategies available to a person, how effective and costly those strategies are, and the constraints within which they must operate. Together, these factors determine whether recovery can be sustained from a given state over time. Three features define this framework: (1) a person can satisfy every present constraint yet still lie outside the zone, when their recovery capital cannot keep all of those constraints satisfied over time; (2) the global and domain viability boundaries are configured by a person’s recovery capital yet remain functionally unclear or unknown to the person seeking recovery maintenance; and (3) recovery operates through recursive self-modification, with governing structures (domains of recovery action and experience) continuously rewritten by prior experience and temporal drift. Conclusions: Recovery viability theory provides a complementary analytic tool for studying recovery as a constrained, dynamic process whose governing rules are continuously rewritten by prior recovery experience, the passage of time, and changes in the recovery ecosystem. It extends viability theory into the recovery-maintenance space, and it generates testable propositions about how recovery capital configures the viable states from which recovery can be sustained.
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BibTeX
@misc{kepner2026recovery,
title = {{Recovery Viability Theory: Recovery Capital and the Recursive Maintenance of Addiction Recovery}},
author = {Wayne Kepner and William White and James O'Neill},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/a6bv7_v2},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/a6bv7_v2/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Recovery Viability Theory: Recovery Capital and the Recursive Maintenance of Addiction Recovery
AU - Wayne Kepner
AU - William White
AU - James O'Neill
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/04
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/a6bv7_v2
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/a6bv7_v2/
AB - Background: Dynamical systems approaches have modeled the nonlinear, discontinuous character of addiction and the recurrence of use. Formal models of addiction recovery have begun to emerge but remain sparse, and they largely represent recovery as a transition to a low or non-consumption state. The long-term maintenance of recovery, including the specific role of recovery capital and the reconstruction of identity and functioning, remains understudied in the dynamical systems literature. Method: This paper adapts viability theory, a branch of mathematics developed to study constrained dynamical systems, as a candidate framework for modeling how recovery is sustained over time. It specifies recovery capital as the factor that configures the viability zone, and extends the framework to account for the recursive, self-modifying character of the recovery process. Results: We propose that recovery constitutes a zone of recovery viability: the set of states from which a person can maintain health and functioning within livable constraints over time. Recovery capital configures the strategies available to a person, how effective and costly those strategies are, and the constraints within which they must operate. Together, these factors determine whether recovery can be sustained from a given state over time. Three features define this framework: (1) a person can satisfy every present constraint yet still lie outside the zone, when their recovery capital cannot keep all of those constraints satisfied over time; (2) the global and domain viability boundaries are configured by a person’s recovery capital yet remain functionally unclear or unknown to the person seeking recovery maintenance; and (3) recovery operates through recursive self-modification, with governing structures (domains of recovery action and experience) continuously rewritten by prior experience and temporal drift. Conclusions: Recovery viability theory provides a complementary analytic tool for studying recovery as a constrained, dynamic process whose governing rules are continuously rewritten by prior recovery experience, the passage of time, and changes in the recovery ecosystem. It extends viability theory into the recovery-maintenance space, and it generates testable propositions about how recovery capital configures the viable states from which recovery can be sustained.
ER -