Recovery.com's Editorial Policy: Guidance You Can Trust

At Recovery.com, we know that when you're researching addiction or mental health treatment, you're often making one of the most important decisions of your life or helping someone you love in their time of need. That's why we hold ourselves to the highest standards of accuracy, transparency, and care in everything we publish.

This page explains how our editorial process works, including how we use technology and, more importantly, the role our people play. You can see our work reflected across our Resource Hub, where every detail shows our commitment to bringing you the best.

Real People Are Behind Every Article

Every article on Recovery.com starts and ends with our editorial and clinical teams. Our editors research each topic thoroughly, write with care, and revise until the piece meets our standards for clarity and accuracy. Subject matter experts weigh in throughout the process, and when a topic touches on medical or clinical guidance, a licensed healthcare professional thoroughly reviews it for accuracy and helpfulness.

We're intentional about who reviews our content, and you can learn more about the qualifications behind our staff and reviewers. We don't publish anything until we've independently verified the facts against authoritative, evidence-based sources like SAMHSA, NIDA, NIH, and the most up-to-date peer-reviewed research.

What Sets Our Process Apart

• An independent, unbiased resource. We're not owned by a treatment provider, and we don't let sponsorships shape our content. You get information built around what's genuinely helpful, not what's profitable.
• Unique insight into the treatment landscape. We've spent years learning how treatment programs actually operate behind the scenes, so we can help you ask the right questions and know what to expect.
• Led by lived experience. We incorporate the perspectives of people with lived experience and those in mental health and/or addiction recovery.
• Clinically reviewed, accurate information. Licensed healthcare professionals review our medical and behavioral health content, and every factual claim is checked against trustworthy, evidence-based sources.
• Powered by writers passionate about improving lives. Our writers care deeply about this space, and it shows in the depth and empathy behind every article.

Expertise You Can Trust

Our team is made up of people who bring real expertise, genuine passion, and often lived experience to the table. Many of our contributors are recognized leaders in the recovery field, and we make a point of connecting with expert contributors, clinicians, researchers, and people with firsthand experience of recovery, so our content reflects perspectives you won't find on a generic health website.

A Growing Focus on Original Research

We're not just summarizing what's already out there. We're investing in original research to uncover new insights into the rehab landscape and the recovery experience, so you get information that's not just accurate, but genuinely additive to the conversation around addiction and mental health treatment.

Our Most Frequently Cited Sources

Every fact you read on Recovery.com is checked against authoritative, evidence-based research. Here are the sources you'll see cited most often across our Resource Hub:

• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): National data on prevalence, treatment access, and behavioral health trends.
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): Research on substance use, addiction, and the neuroscience of dependency.
• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA): Clinical and epidemiological research on alcohol use disorder.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Public health statistics, mortality data, and risk factor research.
• National Institutes of Health (NIH): Foundational biomedical and clinical research across conditions.
• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): Research on mental health conditions, diagnosis, and treatment outcomes.
• World Health Organization (WHO): Global health data and diagnostic standards.
• American Psychological Association (APA) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) criteria and clinical definitions for mental health and substance use conditions.
• Peer-reviewed journals (via PubMed and similar databases): The latest clinical research on treatment approaches and outcomes.
• National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA): Resources specific to eating disorder conditions and recovery.
• Recovery Research Institute (RRI) : Applied research on addiction recovery and long-term outcomes from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

We never cite treatment center marketing pages, personal blogs, or competitor sites. If a claim can't be traced back to these kinds of sources, it doesn't make it into an article.

Our Editorial Process

Every article moves through the same structured process before it reaches you:

1. Research. Our team researches the topics and questions our readers care about and develops a clear structure for each article.
2. Drafting. Our writers draft the full article, following our style guide for voice, tone, and inclusive, person-first language, with citations built in from the start.
3. Fact-checking. Every cited claim is verified against its original source. Every uncited factual statement is investigated and either sourced or removed.
4. Clinical review. When a topic touches on medical or clinical guidance, a licensed healthcare professional reviews the piece for accuracy and helpfulness.
5. Publication and monitoring. Once published, articles stay on our radar. As research, guidelines, or treatment standards change, we revisit and update the content to keep it current.

Where AI Fits In

We're transparent about our use of generative AI as part of our workflow. Think of it as a productivity tool, similar to a spell checker or a research assistant, that helps us organize information, draft outlines, and refine language more efficiently. It's a tool that supports our process, not one that replaces it.

Our team relies on subject matter experts and licensed healthcare professionals to research and interpret scientific evidence, properly communicate complex healthcare-related information, and ensure that what you're reading is not only accurate, but accessible.

Accountability Is Non-Negotiable

If something is inaccurate or out of date, that's on us to fix, not on a tool. We built this editorial policy because we believe trust has to be earned honestly, and that means being upfront about our process so you always know what you're reading and how it was made.

As AI tools evolve, we'll keep evolving our practices around them, always with the goal of using them responsibly and transparently while protecting the rigor and integrity you've come to expect from Recovery.com.

Our editorial policy comes down to one thing: you should be able to trust what you read here. We use every tool available to us, including AI, to work more efficiently, but the accuracy, empathy, and judgment behind each article are entirely human. That's the standard we hold ourselves to, and it's the standard we'll keep holding ourselves to as our process continues to evolve.

Recovery.com AI Disclosure Statement

At Recovery.com, our mission is to provide accurate, trustworthy, and evidence-based information that empowers people to make informed decisions about addiction, mental health, and behavioral healthcare. Every piece of content we publish reflects the expertise, judgment, and dedication of our editorial and clinical teams.

To support our editorial workflow, Recovery.com may use generative artificial intelligence (AI) as a productivity tool for tasks such as research organization, outlining, drafting, editing, and language refinement. AI helps streamline portions of our content development process, but it doesn't replace the knowledge, critical thinking, or editorial judgment of our team.

Every article published on Recovery.com is developed with meaningful human involvement. Our editors research, write, revise, fact-check, and refine every piece of content to ensure it meets our editorial standards for quality, accuracy, and clarity. Subject matter experts contribute their expertise throughout the content development process, and medical and behavioral health content is reviewed by licensed healthcare professionals when appropriate. All factual information is independently verified using authoritative, evidence-based sources.

Recovery.com never relies on AI to make medical judgments, interpret scientific evidence, develop treatment recommendations, or independently determine what's published. AI-generated content is carefully reviewed, edited, and verified before publication. The final decisions about every article, including its accuracy, clinical integrity, and suitability for publication, are made by our human editors and reviewers.

Our editorial and medical teams remain fully accountable for every piece of content we publish. AI is simply one of many tools that support our work; it's never a substitute for the expertise, compassion, and professional responsibility that define Recovery.com's editorial process.

We're committed to using AI responsibly, ethically, and transparently while maintaining the rigorous editorial standards, clinical accuracy, and trust our readers expect and deserve.

What This Means for You

Every article you read on Recovery.com is held to the same standard: real editors, licensed clinical reviewers when the topic calls for it, and citations from sources like SAMHSA, NIDA, and NIH, not from marketing copy or competitor sites. AI may support parts of our process, but a human always makes the final call on what gets published.

Only about 1 in 5 people who need substance use treatment actually receive it each year.¹ We believe part of closing that gap starts with giving people information they can trust, so they can make a confident, informed decision about the next step.

Ready to see that standard in action? Explore our Resource Hub for independent, clinically reviewed guides on addiction and mental health treatment, or reach out if you have questions about how a specific article was researched and reviewed.