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Constructing the self as addict: Narratives of recovery and resistance among women in drug abuse treatment (Florida)
The overall goal of this research was to explore the processes of personal identity construction among drug-involved women in Miami, Florida, who were participating in substance abuse treatment with their children. This study traced the development of personal identity within the context of institutional practices common to substance abuse treatment programs. Specifically, this study was concerned with understanding women's active negotiations of authoritative treatment discourses surrounding addiction as a disease, and the processes through which they accepted, resisted, or rejected the construction of an addict identity. Thirty-three participants were recruited from three programs: 12 from a residential substance abuse treatment program for women and children; 9 from a traditional residential substance abuse treatment program for women only; and, 12 from an HIV prevention program for out-of-treatment women drug users. The research plan included two in-depth semi-structured interviews with each participant over a 3-month period, and naturalistic observations of the treatment programs. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, and were coded and analyzed using a standard qualitative analysis package. Clear patterns were evident in the identity trajectories of the participants, particularly as the trajectories were compared across contexts. The majority of participants in the women and children's program negotiated positive, forward-looking “recovery identities” through their participation in this particular system of activity. In contrast, fewer than half of the participants in the “women only” program and the women out-of-treatment displayed any positive developmental change. These findings coincided with more intensive and personal engagement in Twelve Step activities consistently displayed by women in the parental program, as they were more accepting of the self-as-addict label, more actively involved in 12-step storytelling, and more likely to ascribe personal change to their 12-step participation. These developing “recovery identities” were uniquely connected to women's commitments to motherhood, suggesting that recovery became personally meaningful because it afforded the possibility to be a “good” mother. The findings indicate that the interweaving of multiple identity possibilities in a women and children's treatment program affords the construction of more positive developmental trajectories, and argues against the singular focus on “addict identities” so prominent in many substance abuse treatment facilities.
