The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released Recovery from Substance Use and Mental Health Problems Among Adults in the United States (PDF | 439 KB), a new report that provides data on the adults in recovery from their substance use and/or mental health problem and provides policy recommendations identified as supporting recovery. Using data from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), this report shows that 70 million adults aged 18 or older perceived that they ever had a substance use and/or mental health problem. For substance use specifically, of the 29.0 million adults who perceived that they ever had a substance use problem, 72.2% (or 20.9 million) considered themselves to be in recovery or to have recovered from their drug or alcohol use problem. For mental health, of the 58.7 million adults who perceived they ever had a mental health problem, 66.5% (or 38.8 million) considered themselves to be in recovery or to have recovered from their mental health problem.
