Spiritual Conflicts and Cessation of Drug Use: A Comparative Study of the US and Germany

• In Event: 296 - Section on Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Networks and Substance Use
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Substance Use and Identity

Abstract

Attributions of blame can intensify stigma towards people suffering from drug addiction and HIV/AIDS. In order to more fully understand the drug use among people with HIV, biographical processes and relevant contextual conditions are examined in the current study which comes from a larger comparative study between Frankfurt, Germany and Miami, USA. A process which emerged in the larger study was the resolution of spiritual conflicts and cessation of drug use. The embeddedness of this process in social positions and personal history emerged as integral to participants' overcoming addiction. Biographical analysis allowed for a deep understanding of the unfolding of participants’ lives which was grounded in their lifeworlds and allowed for a nuanced understanding of social processes and conditions and their embeddedness in individual and structural phenomena. In this study, we discuss the intersectionality between living with HIV/AIDS, drug use, sexuality, and race/ethnicity and conceptions of drug use, HIV/AIDS, and sexuality. Intersectionality was grounded in social context and personal and collective biography.

Authors

• Lauren M. Kaplan, University of California-Berkeley

• Gail Ironson, University of Miami

• Heidemarie Kremer, Florida International University

• Tom Greenfield, University of California-Berkeley

• Kate Karriker-Jaffe, University of California-Berkeley