themselves. Drugs were offering them other sources of meaning. They had become "inundated" (Rosenbaum, 1981: 48) into a drug culture with other users and had now procured addictive identities.

          But, as addiction progressed for respondents, they became self-loathing and disgusted with themselves as they started to see how their actions were affecting their lives in negative ways. Their addiction had seemingly run its course. This was exemplified through one woman's comment: "I was no longer in love" (with alcohol, her drug of choice), along with another respondent, who said, "It (drug of choice) stopped working." What was evident as this stage progressed was that respondents began to realize that something was skewed in their sense of individual identities and they needed to counter negative self-feelings in this stage. Therefore, they now had to learn to end addiction and manage recovering selves.   

(3) The Recovering Self Stage: Finally, in the recovering self stage, women came to realize that they had to relinquish addictive individual and social identities and work actively in order to create new non-addictive lives. As one respondent said as she described her recovery to me:

                                  For sure, there's a self-change. But when I got into recovery, I didn’t know 

                                  who I was. I think that, actually, at the beginning of recovery, you start

                                  discovering yourself. It's almost like finding out who you really are. And, actually,

                                  whenever you started (on drugs) you left off at that part of your life at that age. 

 

          Respondents were beginning to "beat the dragon of their addiction" (McIntosh and McKeganey, 2002: 41) as they left addictive behaviors behind and began their journeys to recovery. What became obvious in this stage of respondents' lives was that, as they entered recovery, they developed plans of action into how best they could become and stay abstinent. Overall, women were beginning to redefine their experiences with substances, along with relationships to themselves.

          As they strategized in recovery, respondents were creating non-addictive environments within a non-addictive social world. For example, as they began to disengage from addictive lifestyles, they began to reengage with either significant others (i.e., family, children, partners) and/or new reference groups (i.e., church and community groups). Many were attending either university or community college (24%), while others (28%) were working at new jobs. They gained new non-using friends, along with new partner relationships. Ongoing recovery consisted of strategies, or "contexts of action" (Kiecolt, 1994: 61), thus enabling them to develop social agency. Sixty-eight percent of respondents attended A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous) and/or N.A. (Narcotics Anonymous), while others worked with counselors as they struggled to stay abstinent. Twelve percent of women did not avail themselves of institutional help, but were supported by friends, family and/or partners as they began recovery. Some made geographical moves (32%) into new communities in order to leave using friends behind. And many were involved in community work (64%), or were helping others, thus enabling them to develop healthy social relationships in a non-addictive world. Relapses had been of some concern for 48% of respondents in early recovery, but, overall, as one woman made note and which was applicable for all respondents: "I'm not that person anymore. I'm happy within myself." 

Summary  

          Current thinking about addiction and recovery has tended to emphasize men's processes of these experiences (Goode, 1999; Rosenbaum, 1981). Although this current study has limitations (i.e., limited sample size, therefore no determination corresponding to representativeness), I have attempted to explore women's processes in particular and to demonstrate the complexities of 25 women's addiction and recovery processes as seen through their experiences through the paradigm of symbolic interactionism.

          Using Mead's (1938) outline of social action theory, I argued that respondents, through varying stages, became immersed into addictive lifestyles and, consequently, through various actions, into recovery for themselves. I argued that the key to achieving substance-free statuses were their abilities to take on new non-addictive identities and roles as non-addicts by transforming central relationships to selves and others through which they structured new identities. I have also attempted to show how respondents were strategic actors in their recovery processes. Focusing on women's lived experiences and accounts, this study has outlined the central features of these women's lives. More specifically, it has endeavored to contribute to existing literature on women's addiction and recovery processes.    

          Respondents have traveled pathways into addiction and, then, roads to recovery. As one respondent insightfully made note, "Recovery is the absence of insanity." For these women their addiction and recovery processes had been arduous journeys, journeys of coming back from their 'insanity'. Knowledge gained through these journeys provided respondents not only with new individual and social identities, but also wisdom, which enabled them to continue to move forward as they constructed new lives.     

 

Endnotes

1 This overview is part of a larger study which includes my dissertation work

2 The terms, controlled substances and/or drugs, are used in this study to include all drugs, licit and illicit (prescription and nonprescription), including alcohol. Tobacco is not included.

3 The WASA Project, an acronym for The Women and Substance Abuse Project, was funded by the Health and Promotions Branch, Health Canada, and was sponsored by the Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Moncton; Crossroads for Women, Inc. Moncton;