Existential aspects of living with addiction - part I: meeting challenges

Journal of Clinical Nursing
Lena Wiklund

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the existential aspects of living with addiction. This study arises from data from a previous research project carried out by the author and takes as its point of departure the patient's perspective. Addiction is described as being related to traumatic experience and to loss of control, shame, guilt and low self-esteem, but also to spirituality. This causes profound suffering and drugs are used as a means of handling this suffering. Hermeneutic inquiry was used to explore peoples experiences of living with addiction. The first study was based on interviews with people with rich, personal experience of addiction. This study constitutes a secondary analysis of the same data and was conducted using a hermeneutic approach. On an existential level the experiences of living with addiction can be understood as a striving to meet and resolve challenges associated with spirituality caused by a person's suffering and, paradoxically, also by his/her efforts to relieve that suffering through the use of drugs. These challenges are presented as themes focusing on the conflict that must be met; meaning - meaninglessness, connectedness - loneliness, life - death, freedom - adjustment, responsibility - guilt, control ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Oct 20, 2012·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry·Rachel R HammerBarbara A Koenig
Sep 11, 2012·Issues in Mental Health Nursing·Bethany J Phoenix, Matt J Tierney
Jul 22, 2014·Pain Medicine : the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine·Barbara St Marie
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May 16, 2017·Frontiers in Human Neuroscience·Human-Friedrich UnterrainerAndreas Fink

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