Livet i missbruk och hur det är att sluta : En kvalitativ studie utifrån mäns och kvinnors känslomässiga upplevelser och sociala relationer

Life in addiction and what it is like to quit A qualitative study based on men and womens emotional experienses and social relationships Women in addiction are faced by harder social attitudes then men, which could be an explanation to the fact that, in comparison to men, less women are seen in addiction. That women experience stronger feelings of shame makes them inclined to hide their addiction and this in turn can increase the feeling of shame. The objective of this essay was to, with a starting-point in theory and essential concepts as social relationships and emotions, gain knowledge about emotional experiences and momentous events for men and women during time in addiction and when quitting. More specifically, the aim of the study was to answer the following questions; What is life in addiction and quitting, regarding social relationships and emotional experiences as pride and shame in interaction with people who are important to the individual, like? Do the situations women are in, and the experiences they have, differ from those of men? Do these social relationships and emotional experiences influence the addition and the quitting? In the study six persons have been interviewed, three men and three women who are all quitting, or trying to quit, their drug and/or alcohol addiction. The study gave at hand that the women are hiding their addiction, they talk about strong feelings of shame, about different emotional experiences and about the vulnerability they experience when in addiction. The men instead talk about the feeling of solidarity in addiction, and they have to a greater extent experienced criminality which influences their narratives. The men have found it more difficult to talk about feelings then the women. The conclutions of this study is first that individuals have a lot of emotions and feelings to deal with when quitting, since it is at this time a lot of the emotions surface. When in addiction a lot of these feelings are repressed. Many are carrying emotional experiences that have affected them in different ways. Some events or experiences have had a paralysing effect and have lead to continuous addiction in order to suppress hard feelings. Other experiences have made the person take a break from addiction to think, which in some cases have led to a final breaking away from the addiction. Second the study has shown the importance of positive social relationships. It is hard to quit if there are no relations in the life as sober/off drugs, but only when in addiction, particularly for men. Women who are lonely in their addiction need positive relationships as a support when breaking up from addiction, the loneliness is experienced as very negative and leads to continuous addiction. The relationship with ones children is very important when quitting and is a reason for quit, both for men and the women. Keywords: addiction, quit, beaking up, gender, social relationships, emotions, feelings, sham