Although there is considerable research concerning drinking behaviors, the literature is relatively silent on specific problems areas encountered by those going through alcoholism recovery. Little is known about how the recovery process changes over time and whether men and women experience the recovery process in the same way. As such, the authors engaged in an exploratory investigation to investigate possible problem areas that plague those in recovery; the specific focus was on identifying gender differences and time-in-recovery differences. The authors analyzed the Koss-Butcher and the Lachar-Wrobel Critical Item sets from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2 (MMPI-2) to probe issues involved with long-term recovery. Methodology was a secondary analysis of data collected during the Family Recovery Project conducted at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, CA. The data were collected from 52 families who were in alcoholism recovery programs from 2 months to 18 or more years. Results indicated that as time in recovery progressed, the experience of recovery became similar for male and female alcoholics and co-alcoholics. After 10 or more years in recovery, there were no significant differences in mean Critical Item endorsement between men and women. Future studies may explore similarities and differences between those in recovery with the MMPI-2 normative samples using Critical Item endorsement. References