section_path: Addiction and the humanities/Narrative Approach and Addiction
section_name: Narrative Approach and Addiction
paragraph_text: Narrative Approach and Addiction
  
  The narrative medicine to addiction focuses on recognizing, absorbing, and interpreting the stories of those suffering from addiction, allowing for better understanding of their experiences with narrative analysis being used to study the discourse of those with addiction. This knowledge can be used to develop better care plans with the potential to increase patient compliance and make treatment more effective.
  
  A narrative study demonstrated and studied cognitive and emotional tendencies among substance abusers during treatment periods to learn more about motivation and ambivalence inherent in recovery over the course of a residential treatment program. Seven narrative types emerged from the overall analysis: optimistic, overly optimistic, pessimistic, overly pessimistic, "tough life," troubled/confused, and balanced. Narratives tended to express a basic level of emotionality in early stages of treatment ("optimistic", "pessimistic" narrative). Over time, as clients progressed through the program, their stories became more complex and detailed, including their drug abuse and recovery efforts, more skeptical positions towards treatment began to emerge. Clients began to distinguish between the positive and negative aspects of treatment, creating more "balanced" narratives in the process.
  
  Due to higher medication consumption, social isolation, financial worries, and other factors, older adults are particularly vulnerable to substance use problems. Incidence of addiction among this population is inaccurately reported. Narrative therapy can provide an avenue to unearth stories of addiction in an empowering manner, and thus serves as a viable therapeutic tool in applied gerontology. When treating substance abuse in older adults, it is essential to ensure that the client is respected and comfortable disclosing information. This should be done at the outset of treatment when the therapist and older adult are developing the therapeutic relationship. The social breakdown model is an important tool that can consider the compounded effects of ageism, physical changes, social changes, and substance abuse. The narrative approach integrates the social breakdown model with substance abuse challenges and can be an effective way to address addiction in this population.
  
  A study conducted in 2009 in the Republic of Moldova looked into the social dynamics of initiating injection drug usage by examining 42 audio-recorded, semi-structured interviews with present and former injectors. A thematic analysis suggested that self-injection was viewed as a symbolic transition of identity, enabled by interpersonal interactions and collective influences. Personal narratives of self-transition were connected to larger narratives of social transitions. The personal narratives of self-initiation and transition are contextualized and understood in terms of political (social) narratives within the core concept of the 'transitional society'. Another study examined the narratives of 'initiators': people who help people who inject drugs (PWID) with their first injection. Through their accounts, respondents described initiation events as meaningful transitions to a life characterized by predictable downfalls of homelessness, infections, and social stigma. Initiators used examples from their own personal experience to explain the process of initiation and assistance, attributing personal agency and predicting specific injection-related harms for initiates. They distinguished between two forms of harm: potentially avoidable proximal harm caused by risky injection practices (e.g. overdose, HIV) and perceived inevitable distal harm caused by long-term injection (e.g. socioeconomic decline). In this way, these narratives reflect a balance of individual agency, harm reduction intentions, and accepted notions of 'life after initiation' interact with the narrative experiences and intentions of PWIDs.