The purpose of this essay is to explore the significance for former drug addicts who, during their treatment against drug abuse, have had a therapist with a Drug addiction in his or her past. A qualitative case study has been used as method in which four former drug users have been interviewed. We have compiled the results based on five key themes in order to get a comprehensive picture of the relevance of common experiences regarding drug abuse, based on former addicts? experiences. This has been done in connection with a review of different theoretical perspectives that we have found relevant to the investigation. Our findings have then been compared with previous research in the field.

The purpose of this thesis was to increase our understanding of how the social service in Sweden deals with reported incidents of addiction to medicines. Another purpose was to point out the different opinions concerning addiction to medicines amongst actors as well as possible ways to handle the problem.We have conducted a quantitative and qualitative e-mail survey targeting all communities in Sweden, with the ambition of gaining further knowledge about the role and responsibility of the social service concerning reports of addiction to medicines. Two quantitative questions were one asked about how many clients requested/were reported for needing help with their drug abuse alone, and the second question about how many clients needing help for drug abuse as a part of a wider addiction.The survey revealed that the social services judge their role/responsibility differently; some take the main responsibility while others think that drug abuse is created by the general health care and should be handled by this organization as well. In relation to the estimated amount of drug addicts in Sweden only a small part are in contact with the social service..

The purpose of this study is to understand and analyze why individuals develop and manage to leave drug abuse. The material consists of interviews with eight individuals who have gone through a life of addiction and managed to change their lifestyle. We contacted the participants through the organization called KRIS (Criminals Redress with Society). The results indicate that the participants have had a troublesome upbringing and been labeled by society as outsiders which have led them into addiction. The results also show that they have all gone through a social conversion from the life as an addict to become sober.

The aim of this study is to increase understanding about addiction recovery. More specifically, we want to know what people who have had problems with alcohol and/or other drugs perceive as helpful and important for their recovery process and how we can understand this process.The study was conducted by means of qualitative semi-structured interviews with four people who have had alcohol and/or other drug problems. The analysis is based on a transtheoretical model of change from addictive behaviours, coping, interactionist theories and also a recovery perspective, inspired by research on recovery from mental illness . Main findings are that recovery from addiction can be understood as an individual process that takes place in a social context and can follow expected phases, although there are large individual differences in the process. Through the recovery process it has been of importance to the participants in the study to redefine themselves and their problems, get support from others, find ways to cope with their problems, get involved in meaningful activities and to expand their social roles.

The aim of this study was to examine how the new established phenomenon of ?Internet drugs? causes challenges to organizations, both individually and in relation to collaboration. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with representatives from three organizations - one youth police unit, one medical addiction centre and four units working within social services. The theoretical approach that was used is theory about human service organizations, theory about collaboration and new institutional organizational theory. A conclusion is that the current drug classification is problematic and mainly challenging for the organizations that focus on prevention work and early interventions.

ABSTRACTIn this study, five people were interviewed who are involved in a drug-assisted program for opiate addiction, also called substitution program. The meaning of substitution is that these clients' Drug addiction is replaced with substitute preparations, either methadone or Subutex in an orderly manner. The clients of the researcher decided to study the substitution program have all been a heavy opiate addiction for years. Their participation in the replacement program is more than two years, and those who have been around the longest have been in the program for six years, so long as the substitution program has existed in Visby.This is a qualitative study in which interviews are conducted face to face with each individual client, and the interview was unstructured in the sense that no specific issues made in advance. The interviews have been themed, and the researcher has gone through various areas of life around the respondent.

The purpose with our essay was to examine what favourable factors there are for women to get out of drug abuse and from a gender aspect interpret how these factors are used in the treatment of female drug-addicts, regarded from the treatment personnel view. The questions we have focused on are: What are the favourable factors for women in the way out of the addiction. How can the use of favourable factors be interpreted from a gender aspect. In what way is the knowledge about these favourable factors used in the drug abuse treatment.To fulfil the purpose whit our examination and to get answers to our questions we performed an explorative examination and applied a qualitative method in the form of a half structured interview with five persons.The main features of the results in our examination were that unisexual treatment, the group and the friendship between women, children and pregnancy and professional and private social network were considered as the favourable factors for the women out of their addiction. Certain factors were used in the treatment as a way to socialize or resocialize the female drug-addicts to predominant social models of how a woman should be like..

Gender in Administrative Court of Appeal - A discourse analysis of verdicts concerning compulsory drug treatmentThe purpose of this study was to examine gender discourses that could be identified inverdicts concerning compulsory drug treatment. A discourse analysis was conducted of 46verdicts from an administrative court of appeal, located in central Sweden. The main findingsof the study was that the descriptions of women, more often than men, are based on factorsother than their addiction, such as appearance and social environment. Men are in all casesdescribed by their addiction and on their own behavior. Women are presented as they riskvulnerability, while men are presented already suffer from vulnerability.

ABSTRACTIn this study, five people were interviewed who are involved in a drug-assisted program for opiate addiction, also called substitution program. The meaning of substitution is that these clients' Drug addiction is replaced with substitute preparations, either methadone or Subutex in an orderly manner. The clients of the researcher decided to study the substitution program have all been a heavy opiate addiction for years. Their participation in the replacement program is more than two years, and those who have been around the longest have been in the program for six years, so long as the substitution program has existed in Visby.This is a qualitative study in which interviews are conducted face to face with each individual client, and the interview was unstructured in the sense that no specific issues made in advance. The interviews have been themed, and the researcher has gone through various areas of life around the respondent.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between mental illness and socioeconomic factors such as education, age and gender among drug users. Descriptive and ANOVA analysis were performed to 68 structured interviews (Addiction Severity Index basic). Analysis addressed associations between drug usage and level of education, age and gender. Results showed gender differences in self-rated mental health with women drug users rating their mental health lower than men. In addition, there was no association between age, educational level and self-rated mental health.

Life in addiction and what it is like to quitA qualitative study based on men and womens emotional experienses and social relationshipsWomen 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 purpose of this study was to, through the life stories of four women and their experiences, thoughts and feelings according to a life in drug dependency reach an increased knowledge about how a dependency can arise, continue and be brought to an end. The question at issue were: How do a small amount of women describe and comprehend their experiences, thoughts and feelings according to their Drug addiction seen through a process perspective. In order to answer that question three themes were investigated: the road into dependency, living as an addict and the road to recovery from dependency and the time that follows. The study followed a qualitative method and the theoretical approach was hermeneutic. The results were analysed through a process analyse perspective, from the view of the chosen theoretical perspectives, social constructivism, experience perspective and a psychodynamic perspective.

The purpose of this paper was to examine how people experience the practice of Cannabis in daily life. The study was based on interviews with five individuals who have experience with cannabis use. They do not represent a bigger population only themselves. We chose these particular individuals because all of them began using cannabis at a young age- everyone before they were twenty. But they have been using cannabis because of different reasons.

The aim of this study is to take note of  social worker´s views on opiate addiction and medication-assisted treatment. The definition of social workers in this paper, is people who are involved with individuals  who have an opiate addiction and have therefore been in contact with drug assisted treatment. Data was collected through interviews with social workers. The interviews were based on an interview questionnaire on four explicit themes: Motivation, Medical Assisted Treatment (LA) Other complementary treatment and expenses and its meanings. These are analyzed and discussed through the theory of harm reduction and the theory of labeling..

Our purposes with this essay was to increase our knowledge about, and try to describe, how it happens when people get involved in gambling and becomes addictive to gambling, and what the way out of a gambling addiction could look like. Our framing of the question was: - How does gambling begin? - How does gambling evolve to an addiction and how does it go forward from there? - How do you leave a gambling addiction? Is there an experience of turning points? We did qualitative interviews with six former gamblers. Our main conclusions were that the initiation to gambling can be very different and still lead to similar effects. There seems to be a strong enticement surrounding the attributes of gambling, which are connected to developing a gambling addiction. The experiences of turning points were very palpable.