Självmordsförsök bland narkotikamissbrukare

The aim of this thesis is to describe suicide attempts in a group of drug abusers who previously had received treatment of their addiction. Another aim is to interpret and analyse the life situations that the individual associates with the suicide attempt. The dissertation is based on interviews conducted on two occasions with 92 drug abusers, 62 men and 30 women. The majority of the drug abusers were injection addicts with a complicated social situation going back many years. The theoretical tools focus on an interactive and an individual level and the analyses concern the relation between the suicide attempt and the drug abuse, social interaction, emotional experiences, and self perception. Results from the study shows that 39 percent of the drug abusers had attempted suicide during their period of active drug abuse, 60 percent were women. The suicide attempts took place at the start of their abuse career or /and after many years of abuse when they were deeply involved in the life of a drug addict. Five "keysituations" were identified and related to the suicide attempt. Theese reflected different lifesituations, which were related to the drug career. The keysituations were: suicide in the teens, mental pane which became unbearable, various coersive interventions linked to the abuse, the negative effects of the addiction such as an increasingly chaotic situation which could be described as "the rock bottom" and finally the fifth situation which reflected the processes of breaking out of addiction and the difficulty of living an "ordinary" social life. The analyses of the interviewees´narratives showed the relation between social, interactive, and individual factors and the significance of the abuse for the suicidal act. It was palpaple that the suicide attempt was explained on the basis of the specific stiuation in which it happened. This indicate that the suicide attempt is linked to specific social contexts, interactions with other people and the individual´s interpretation of this context. Whatever the context, the emotional experienes of the subjects were charged with feelings of shame and guilt and despair over their lifs situation