"Innan såg man sig själv som en skitig knarkare helt enkelt"Berättelser om vägen in och ut ur missbruket med händelser, tankar och beslut om ett drogfritt liv.

The purpose of this essay was to try to understand wich situations and events influenced individuals in the process of both becoming a drug-addict and in the process becoming a person with a drug-free life. The framing of the questions we had were if it was possible to see a pattern and find similarities in the changing-process, what role did relationsships play and which turning-points was important during the process? We also wanted to know how life was described as a drug-addict and how it was described at the moment. The survey was based on thematised qualitative interviews and focused on the personal stories of the interviewees. We interwiewed two women and five men, all of which have had several years of drug-abuse behind them. They had all been undergoing severe change in their social life in a way that they never have expected for themselves. We found similarities and patterns and that relationships played a major role for the changing process. Important turning-points for escalation of the drug use was described and all the interwiewees described a special turningpoint that finally made them take the decision to change their lifes and become individuals with a normal socially accepted life