En gång alkoholist, alltid alkoholist? – en diskursanalys av talet om alkohol, nykterhet och nolltolerans

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was to examine in which way people with current or past experience of substance abuse describe their relationship to alcohol. There is a general point of view in the society about the people with an addiction problem. The perspective concerns that this group of inhabitants "must" live with complete abstinence from alcohol and drugs in their lives. The study was based on interviews with 6 persons with a current/past substance abuse problem. In general the theme was all about control. To analyze that theme I used the theory of social construction and discourse and terms within the theory. In the analysis, I found that all the interviewees more or less relate to the point of view of living by way of complete abstinence from alcohol and drugs. In the analysis, I also found that interviewees made several categorizations about control and alcohol, where one excluded the other. In general they felt that control was something that an individual had or had not. An alcoholic has no control and must exclude alcohol in his life. I also found paradoxes of the categorizations, which showed that there is a form of control even during abuse of alcohol and drugs. At the end of my essay I represent other possible point of views that is shown in the research but are lacking in my interviews. These are: there is no such thing as complete loss of control when drinking and a person with a current/past substance abuse problem is able to gain control when drinking.