Resist or Adapt? A Narrative Analysis of Endeavors for Belonging Among Young Adults with Co-Occurring Substance Use and Mental Health Problems (original) (raw)
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Communal invalidation of young adults with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health issues
Disability & Society, 2019
This study explores how young adults with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health issues experience the challenges of belonging to their local communities. The data was generated through qualitative in-depth interviews with seven young adult service users, six of whom were interviewed twice. The qualitative data analysis resulted in three overarching themes: (1) the need to accept one's own life and the structures surrounding it, (2) being caught between conflicting social worlds, and (3) moral fumbling in choices and actions. Using an empirical study, we suggest that a process of 'communal invalidation' operates through which young adults in the community are socially defined as inadequate. This invalidation serves as a formidable barrier to their recovery.
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2021
Objective: Recently, the position of persons with mental health and drug problems has evolved from victim of an illness to holder of an experience-based knowledge (EBK). Studies about recovery are often based on recovery narratives. However, focusing on components of the recovery process—parts of this EBK concerned with the causes, onset, and journey before the proper recovery process—risks forming a blind spot. In this study, we aim to analyze service users’ EBK about recovery, the backgrounds and causes of the problems, and how they related these conditions to their recovery journey. Research Design and Methods: We interviewed 29 persons in recovery. Data were analyzed by using thematic analysis. Results: We found that a childhood characterized by violence and abuse reoccurred in the stories. The child’s situation was not addressed by schools, social agencies, or neighbours, creating an experience of social isolation and invisibility. Mental health distress and drug abuse were des...
Childhood, 2008
Concern is increasing about children growing up in families where there are substance use problems but relatively little is known about the perspectives of the children themselves. We report on a qualitative study with young people who grew up in such families, exploring their accounts of their daily lives at home, school and leisure. We focus on the everyday interactions, practices and processes they felt helped them to 'get by' in their challenging childhoods, showing how the protective factors thought to promote 'resilience' were seldom in place for them unconditionally and without associated costs.
Recovery from alcohol problems in the absence of treatment: a qualitative narrative analysis
Addiction, 2020
Background and aims Recovery from alcohol problems in the absence of treatment or mutual-aid is very common, but under-researched. This study explores the lives of people who had resolved their alcohol problems without treatment, seeking to situate experiences of recovery in social contexts and broader life narratives. Design The in-depth qualitative interviews were aided by a life-history methodology that invited participants to account retrospectively for their lives. A narrative analysis was undertaken. Setting Two major cities (Sydney and Melbourne) in Australia. Participants People who had resolved an alcohol problem in the absence of treatment (n = 12) were recruited from the general community using convenience sampling. Measurements Eligible participants had received 'minimal treatment' for an alcohol use disorder: fewer than three sessions in an outpatient treatment programme or nine sessions with mutual-aid groups (e.g. Alcoholics Anonymous), or having accessed mental health treatment for problems other than drinking at least 2 years prior or 1 year after having resolved an alcohol problem. Participants were considered to have had an alcohol use disorder if they reported two or more symptoms (DSM-V) within a 1-year period prior to the past year, using questions endorsed by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). People were considered to have resolved their alcohol use disorder by responding to the recruitment message calling for people who "used to have an alcohol problem but no longer do". The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) was used to understand participant's drinking behaviours in the past 12 months. Findings Four different narratives were identified in the analysis. In the emancipation narrative, identity development and major changes across the life-curve were associated with separating oneself from an oppressive circumstance. In discovery narratives, art culture and other consciousness-expanding experiences were sources of identity development, but sometimes a barrier to alcohol recovery. In mastery narratives, life events were understood as failures or successes, and recovery was positioned as an individual journey accomplished through increased problem awareness. Finally, in coping narratives, changes were understood as a series of continuous struggles, and recovery was made sense of through diagnostic discourses. Conclusions People who resolve an alcohol use disorder in the absence of treatment or mutual-aid appear to explain their recovery in terms of at least four different life narratives: emancipation, discovery, mastery or coping. Social contexts and cultures outside the treatment setting, and the various identities and narratives they provide, shape change processes.
Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2022
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2018
I would like to extend my gratitude to everyone who has contributed to the completion of this thesis. I would like to thank the academic and administrative support staff at the National Drug Research Institute (NDRI), Curtin University for providing a professional and instructive research environment. This research was also made possible through the support of an ORD-NDRI Scholarship. I am very grateful to receive the scholarship which was vital during fieldwork and intensive writing periods. A special thank you goes to the current and former staff from NDRI's Melbourne office. Thank you also to Fran Davis, Paul Jones and Jo Hawkins for their administrative and IT supportof which I greatly benefited. Particular thanks go to my primary supervisor, Suzanne Fraser. Suzanne has dedicated considerable time to attending to my written work, while continuing to encourage me to critically reflect on the ideas and approaches I encounter.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Young people’s mental health recovery is well-explored in empirical research, yet there is a lack of meta-studies synthesizing the characteristics of young people’s recovery. This meta-ethnography explores young adults’ recovery during life-disruptive experiences of early psychosis or schizophrenia. Based on a systematic literature review search, 11 empirical qualitative studies were included for synthesis. Inspired by young people’s prominent experience of social isolation in the included studies, we applied an interpretive lens of belonging deriving from the sociology of youth. The synthesis presents five themes: (1) expectations of progression in youth in contrast with stagnation during psychosis, (2) feeling isolated, lost and left behind, (3) young adults’ recovery involves belonging with other young people, (4) forming identity positions of growth and disability during psychosis, and the summarizing line of argument, (5) navigating relational complexities in the process of rec...
2015
Addiction is a complex and growing phenomenon that affects many people in many different contexts. Mothering a child through long-term addiction treatment is an under-researched context. This study is a narrative inquiry into the experiences of four mothers parenting children through long-term addiction treatment. Narrative inquirers explore experience by attending to features of temporality, sociality, and place as they feature in stories that are both lived and told. During 12 months of narrative inquiry fieldwork, four participants and myself inquired into their experiences as mothers of children with addictions. Four narrative accounts of these experiences are presented. These co-composed accounts speak powerfully to participants' experiences on complex personal, familial, social, and addiction landscapes. The narrative accounts provide a basis for theorizing four narrative threads: navigating complexities; loud silences; living within one another's stories, and; places, spaces, and the in-between. This dissertation concludes in the midst of participants' lives. Recommendations for practice, research, and narrative inquiry fieldwork are made. My first thanks are to Molly, Mary, Esther, and Jo for your participation in this study. You courageously shared your experiences and taught me about the power of women and mothers coming together and about the privilege of trusting, talking, feeling, and listening. To Dr. Andrew Estefan, I would like to express my deepest appreciation for your unwavering support, for your patience, guidance, and mentorship, and for being an extraordinary academic and role model. You have both challenged and inspired me throughout the course of my studies and you never stopped believing in me. For that I am truly grateful. I would also like to thank my supervisory committee Dr. Vera Caine, Dr. Sally St. George, and Dr. Carol Ewashen for your individual areas of expertise and for your scholarly critique of my research. Our conversations have been thought provoking and have helped me to think deeper with the topic and with the participants' stories. This dissertation has been partly shaped by those discussions. Thank you to the Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre and to Dr. Dean Vause for your support of my doctoral research. I deeply respect the incredible clinical work that is done at AARC with youth and families who are battling addiction.