Effects of Amazonian Narratives on Women's Stories about Recovery
Location
DeSantis Room 1053
Format Type
Plenary
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
17-1-2020 4:00 PM
End Date
17-1-2020 4:20 PM
Abstract
During a project on life stories and pain, we asked 13 women with diagnoses of opiate use disorder about times when they were heroic, turning points in their lives, high points and low points, mentors, and stories that inspired them. We applied an iterative, constructivist, grounded theory approach (inspired by Charmaz) to these stories, looking for themes of heroism. We identified a paucity of personal stories of heroism amidst the categories of stories that we did find, consisting of (1) stories of victimization and abuse, (2) stories of using drugs as coping styles for emotional and physical pain, (3) stories of suffering in relationships, and (4) stories of escape and avoidance. Adverse childhood events scores were consistently 7 or greater (on a scale with a maximum of 10). As part of the therapeutic process, we used the Amazon motif of strong women warriors to reframe aspects of the women’s past as heroic. We told stories about strong women and women warriors. During the period of 8 to 12 months into the recovery process, we asked the women if they could identify with a strong woman as a role model and if they could tell a story about a time when they were heroic. Each woman identified at least one of the characters we had described and could tell a story about a time when she was heroic. They mentioned the stories as helpful in their recovery. These interventions appeared to be a useful part of the narrative therapy of addictions.
Keywords
Addictions, Amazon motif, narrative therapy, opiate use disorder, life stories
Effects of Amazonian Narratives on Women's Stories about Recovery
DeSantis Room 1053
During a project on life stories and pain, we asked 13 women with diagnoses of opiate use disorder about times when they were heroic, turning points in their lives, high points and low points, mentors, and stories that inspired them. We applied an iterative, constructivist, grounded theory approach (inspired by Charmaz) to these stories, looking for themes of heroism. We identified a paucity of personal stories of heroism amidst the categories of stories that we did find, consisting of (1) stories of victimization and abuse, (2) stories of using drugs as coping styles for emotional and physical pain, (3) stories of suffering in relationships, and (4) stories of escape and avoidance. Adverse childhood events scores were consistently 7 or greater (on a scale with a maximum of 10). As part of the therapeutic process, we used the Amazon motif of strong women warriors to reframe aspects of the women’s past as heroic. We told stories about strong women and women warriors. During the period of 8 to 12 months into the recovery process, we asked the women if they could identify with a strong woman as a role model and if they could tell a story about a time when they were heroic. Each woman identified at least one of the characters we had described and could tell a story about a time when she was heroic. They mentioned the stories as helpful in their recovery. These interventions appeared to be a useful part of the narrative therapy of addictions.