Recovery from drug addiction: Discursive feats in the reconstitution of lives

This study seeks to explore addicts’ experiences of recovery from drug addiction in the context of contemporary discourses surrounding the topic. It takes as its departure point the idea that subjective psychological realities are set against a socio-cultural backdrop and are thus mediated by language. Of particular significance is therefore the role of discourse in the perception and experience of drug use and recovery. As such, the aim is to depart from accepted notions of the recovery process as being an individualised negotiation, but rather, one that is mediated by hegemonic social mechanisms underlying the reproduction and dissemination of mainstream treatment discourses. Findings from this qualitative analysis indicated that the recovery process appeared to be facilitated by the construction of the lifestory narrative using a repertoire of 12-step discursive resources, which had the effect of reconstituting the reality of participants’ selves and past lives. Consequently, participants were observed to have constructed an enduring ‘fellowship-addict’ identity, which was to be carried with them into the future. Rhetorical strategies by which 12-step conceptualisations of addiction were rendered amenable to recovering addicts included the medicalisation of deviance, the restriction of access to recovery resources, and the limitation of alternative discourses for self-actualisation.