Understanding Addiction

This book presents an original study into the
workings of heroin addiction. The study analysed how
using and non-using informants constituted addiction
through language. By comparing the accounts of
self-defined recovered, recovering and currently
addicted users, the study highlighted how the
informant s accounts of heroin use may have
implications with respect to either perpetuating or
enabling their recovery from addiction. The
transcripts of four focus groups were qualitatively
analysed using a thematic method that focused on the
informants strategic use of language. This revealed
important differences between using and non-using
informants in terms of the self-employed discursive
practices that they used in constructing their
experience of addiction. Many heroin users that have
read this study were excited to recognise their
behaviour in it and agreed that it captured an
element of their experience that they have not seen
in print before. This quality can deepen the readers
understanding of what it really means to be addicted,
how users justify continuing use, and how some are
able to recover.