"Vill du bli drogfri, byt polare." : En kvalitativ studie om vikten av gemenskap och delaktighet för att bli och förbli drogfri efter behandling.

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was to investigate how the staff members in the organization and supported living housing VågaVa experienced their time after they had gone through their own treatment for substance abuse. The focus was finding out how they were affected by the sense of companionship, community and participation and if their personal experiences from this was that it helped them remain free from their substance using disease. I have performed six semi-structured interviews with different staff members from the organization and I have also attended one of their morning meetings as an observer. Additionally, to get a wider understanding of the substance abuse disease I have also attended a lecture given by one of the founders of the organization given at the local senior high-school. Given the personal experiences I had the interest in gathering I have chosen a qualitative method of work, this has allowed for a broader understanding of the subject and data. The data that has been collected from the interviews and observations has been analyzed with Berger and Luckmann’s theory about primary and secondary socialization and Travis Hirschi’s theory of the social bond. The staff members in the organization all had the same experience in the sense of having taken part of a treatment program, having had the supported living experience and afterwards receiving an employment within the VågaVa organization. However, their time being sober differed and could vary between a couple of years, up to twenty-five years.