During my research phase, I ran into a major problem. I had trouble finding any recovering addicts who were willing to speak to me about their experiences. I created a survey aimed at my target audience with questions involving how long they've been sober, how have their experiences with recovery and relapse been and wether or not that used any apps to help them. I posted the survey into a sobriety facebook group with around 4.2k members. Unfortunately, my survey didn't get the response I hoped it would as only one person in the group filled it out. There could be a number of reasons why this happened but it got me think about the stigma around addiction and recovery. This could be one of the reasons I was having trouble with some of the primary research I wanted to conduct for my project.

Another issue I encountered was a lack of replies from the clinics I had contacted regarding possibly interviewing some experts on addiction. Of the 5 I contacted, None have got back to me. I feel that this could be a result of covid restrictions easing and like many other medical facilities, they may just be overworked and haven't yet received my inquiries.

Ultimately, this means that a lot of my project will be based on secondary research. This isn't a huge issue as there are plenty of papers and websites out there with relevant information. But it would've been good to have a deeper look into some areas that primary research would've granted me.