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This paper explores mothers' experiences of living with an adolescent with substance use problems; an underresearched topic of inquiry worldwide. Specifically, we were interested in the stressors that mothers face and how these stressors influenced their subjective wellbeing. A qualitative, phenomenological approach was adopted where five mother-adolescent pairs were recruited from two adolescent substance abuse treatment centres to participate in 1:1 in-depth interviews using a lifegrid tool. Interpretative phenomenological analysis revealed that adolescent's substance abuse produced several stressful life events, such as adolescent misconduct, family conflict and financial burdens that provoked feelings of hopelessness, guilt, self-blame, worry, shame, anger, and signs of depression. Understanding mothers' experiences is essential to the development of informed support interventions for mothers of adolescents troubled by substance abuse. We conclude this paper by discussing the research and practice implications of our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evolved from previous research on women's experience of addiction and recovery. The original study was based on detailed semi-structured interviews analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). In this study a poetic representation of material from participants' accounts was created to explore how a focus on the poetic possibilities may enhance the previous studies and contribute to understanding the participants' experience and its meaning. The data for this paper are drawn from a study of six female participants. The poetic representation is derived from the account of one participant. It is suggested that while the poetic representation functions primarily as a research text, it can also be considered as a poetic text. The poetic presentation adds another perspective to the two previous interpretative phenomenological studies of the same material. It portrays the individual's unique story, using the participant's own words, in a holistic manner. Considered in conjunction with the two previous studies, they can be seen as complementing each other, attending both to the experiential dimension as well as to the interpretative possibilities in the material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often noted that the health of any system is predicated upon a healthy dose of doubt and intrinsic scepticism. This is a requisite for identifying areas of improvement, blind spots and biases as well as culling out weak and diseased variables that might pose an eventual risk to the overall health of a system. Equally applicable to biological and natural systems as well as humanistic branches of epistemology, cosmology, sociology and other defining features of the human condition, suspicion ensures that the operational integrity and guiding principles of a collective are maintained, optimized and differentiated from other like bodies. This paper endeavours to resuscitate the forgotten historical lineage of doubt that constituted the early genesis of therapeutics in depth psychology and psychotherapy through the following question: 'How can suspicion facilitate self-awareness and existential clarity within the therapeutic alliance?' Answering this question will be done primarily through a case-study that makes the point that suspicion is not something fabricated by psychology after the fact, but rather, that psyche itself is implicitly guided by contrarian ways that draw out the meaning and messages of symptoms, impulses and unconscious imagery leading people to seek therapy in the first place. Doubt, it is argued, is not something to be reductively paved over in counselling, but is the very therapeutic crucible of transcendence and self-awareness necessary for authentic, embodied transformation to unfold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Codependency is a complex and debatable concept, which has been used over the years by mental health professionals to inform their practices. Researchers have attempted to identify the main problems associated with codependency; however, their evidence is still inconclusive. This is the first time that interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) has been used to explore the lived experience of codependency from the perspective of self-identified codependents. Eight participants recruited from local support groups for codependency in the UK, offered in-depth information about their subjective experiences, and embedded in their lifeworld. Data was gathered through interviews and a visual method. The shared experience of codependency was portrayed by the participants as a complex but tangible multidimensional psychosocial problem in their lives. It incorporated three interlinked experiences: a lack of clear sense of self, an enduring pattern of extreme, emotional, relational, and occupational imbalance, and an attribution of current problems in terms of parental abandonment and control in childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to qualitatively assess the disturbances of lived time in individuals with multiple drug dependencies. The research was conducted at Monar-Markot Center for Humanitarian Aid in Roznowice (Poland) in 2014 through direct, non-disguised observational study in a therapeutic community setting. Overall, 10 clients with multiple drug dependencies forming a newcomers group participated in. They previously abstained from usage for negligible periods of time. The measurements included participant observation of collective time regimes at the center; group discussions; written accounts by clients; Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory; semi-structured interviews. It was found that the clients experienced difficulties in following a strict therapeutic temporal regime, and they also showed a concomitant need to accelerate time as it passed. They also suffered an unpleasant domination by traumatic past within lived time. Their time horizons appeared significantly shortened and their planning capacity impaired, while a distant (dissociated) future was fantasized about in a realistic manner. Altogether, their disturbances of lived time consisted of the propensity to overemphasize their past dimensions at the expense of their future, while a gap between a close and a distant future appeared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This phenomenological study aimed at understanding the experiences of women living with intimate partners with substance abuse problems. Findings show that the five participants' family-of-origin experiences centrally influenced their degree of awareness of their responses to their intimate partners' addictive behaviors. Experiences leading to dawning of awareness include an escalating toll on self, critical life events, and the catalytic effect of outsiders' perspective and support. The discovery of self and care for one's own well-being precipitated changes in spouse and family relationships. Implications of these findings for clinical practice and recovery are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]