Women's discourses about secretive alcohol dependence and experiences of accessing treatment

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: There is a paucity of research documenting women's undisclosed drinking. This studyexplored the discursive accounts of women's alcohol dependence, treatment history andbarriers in accessing alcohol dependence treatment. The goals of this dissertation were toexplore women's alcohol dependence history; explore women's treatment history (or lackthereof); identify barriers and nature of barriers that limit women's access to alcoholdependence treatment; identify the reasons for women not accessing treatment, and tointerpret women's experiences of treatment per se. A Human Scientific Approach wasadopted to examine and interpret how women's drinking is socially constructed. A socialconstructionist approach was utilised to access and construct meaning from thediscourses emanating from the women's narratives of their experience with alcohol andtheir attempts at rehabilitation. Ten women were interviewed using the life story (narrative)interview method. The findings illustrate two major discourses namely, secret drinking andinaccessibility of appropriate treatment facilities for women alcohol dependents. Thismeans that participants feel forced to conceal their drinking and to drink secretivelybecause of the stigma associated with women drinking heavily. The stigma theyexperience translates into barriers (mostly internal barriers) to seeking institutionalisedtreatment. This makes it easier for them to seek alternative treatment such as ananonymous fellowship, like Alcoholics Anonymous. Other discourses signify theimportance of problem identification and treatment readiness. This means that if thealcohol dependent woman realises what the real problem is causing her to use alcohol asan escape or as a coping strategy, she will be more willing to address the underlyingproblem. Recommendations are made focusing on micro and macro-level interventionstrategies such as access to treatment, public health campaigns and policies to improvethe quality of life of women recovering from alcohol dependence.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University